
HALF CENTURY 

OF 

MINNESOTA 






9 




A Half Century of Minnesota 



..AS.. 



TERRITORY AND STATE 



A Concise Account of the Principal Events in the 
Period of Discovery, Exploration and Settle- 
ment, and During the Half Century 
of Territorial and State 
Government. 



By Horace B. Hudson 



Profusely Illustrated 



1900 



5.3752 



< Ol'YIUGHT 180?!. 

Hv HORACE r>. nUDSON 



\' 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 

Library of Ccngret% 
Office of the 

JAN 1 6 1900 

Regltt»r of Copyrigiiic, 



SECOND COPY. 



Introduction. 



THE YEAR 1899 closes a half century of org-anized government in 
Minnesota. Nine of these years were passed under the territorial 
administration and forty-one in statehood; but the distinction matters 
little. In 1840 Minnesota assumed her name and her position among the 
geographical and political divisions of the United States. In 1849 
Minnesota became an entitj-. Since that time she has had a distinct 
place in this great country; for fifty years her history has been making 
and her character and position developing. 

And that half century of Minnesota history is well worth preserva- 
tion. It is worth the while of everj- person living in the state to be in- 
formed as to the main facts in the story of Minnesota. For few if any 
of the states of the Union have made greater progress in the first fifty 
years of their organized existence. This progress has been not alone in 
increased population and material wealth; Minnesota has, in these five 
decades, looked well to the higher things of life. An educational system 
has been established which, while not yet perfect, is recognized as ad- 
mirable in plan and detail and quite wonderful for a state which a half 
century ago was largely inhabited by Indians. At the head of this sys- 
tem is the University of Minnesota, which is now recognized as ranking 
among the best institutions of its kind in the country. Supplementing 
the educational system is a group of excellent libraries which under the 
stimulating influence of sympathetic legislation and enthusiastic pro- 
motion will, it is believed, increase rapidly in the immediate future. Not 
less significant has been the progress of the religious life of the state. 
The leading denominations have found a fertile field among a people 
whose antecedents and traditions make church affiliations and loyalties 
most natural. It is noteworthy that in several of the foremost denomina- 
tions in Minnesota there are individual churches which compare favor- 
ably in membership, charities and general efficiency with any in the 
country. 

A community which supports schools and churches liberally is us- 
ually intelligent, law abiding, honest and patriotic. Such has been 
found to be the case from the earliest days in Minnesota. From the be- 
ginnings of things in the settlements near Fort Snelling the press has 
been a recognized factor in the life of the people. With the establish- 
ment of every village has gone the founding of a newspaper; the people 
of Minnesota have always been a reading people — a people well informed 



on affairs. Such a community, it goes without sa3'ing, is public spirited 
and patriotic. Minnesota was the first to respond to the call for troops 
to suppress the rebellion. (Governor Ramsey made the first tender of a 
regfiment and a Minnesota man was the first to enlist. In these fifty 
years the state has been singularly free from the unhappy results of law- 
lessness; there is little to tell, in the history of the state, of riots, lynch- 
ings or other outbreaks against lawful authority. It is also true that the 
state's financial record is clean, the only blot upon its credit — one which 
seemed almost excusable — having been subsequently obliterate!. 

Minnesota has developed men who have taken most conspicuous 
places in the councils of the nation and who have international reputa- 
tions. Not less respected are her business men who have made the prod- 
ucts of the state known around the world, or her farmers who have de- 
veloped the resources of the soil. Acting together, the public men, the 
business men, the farmers — all classes of honest workers — have brought 
Minnesota in fifty years to an honored and prominent place in the sister- 
hood of states. And yet the wonderful natural resources of the state 
are but parti}' developed. But one tenth of the state is under cultivation. 
The population is a million and a half; if the state were peopled only 
as densely as Ohio the population would reach seven and a half millions, 
or more than the present population of New York and New Jersey 
combined. 

E-very citizen of Minnesota may well be proud of her past, of her 
present — and look fofward with confidence and pride to her future. And 
as the mind naturally adapts itself to summing up results and making 
retrospects at certain fixed periods, the end of Minnesota's first half cen- 
tury seems an appropriate time in -(^hich to review the principal events 
in the history of the state. This is the raisoii d'etre of this sketch. There 
has been no attempt to produce a detailed history of the state; the purpose 
has been, as may be seen at a glance, to touch briefly upon the important 
and significant events in Minnesota's history — the events which have 
affected her career or which have been mile stones in her progress. 

Acknowledgements are due to the Minnesota Historical Society 
whose collections must furnish the basis of all historical work in this state. 
Through the courtes_y of the society several illustrations have been re- 
produced which have special value as the original engravings of the faces 
and scenes familiar in early days in Minnesota. The writings of the 
Rev. Edward D. Neil and Mr. J. Fletcher Williams have also been fre- 
quently consulted. — H. B. H. 



Exploration and Early Settlement. 



Minnesota in Mistv Tradition. 

For more than a century alter the discov- 
ery of America nothing whatever was 
known of the region about the headwaters 
of the Mississippi river. During the sev- 
enteenth century tales of the wonderful 
country lying west of the Great Lakes be- 
gan to reach the eastern settlements and 
were transmitted to Europe, 1)ut for the 
most part they are so vague and contradict- 
ory as to be little better than oral tradi- 
tion. Canada was let that time a French 
possession and the earliest exploratitju to- 
wards the west was made by French voy- 
aguers — men of energy and action, but or- 
dinarily ignorant and untrustworthy. Their 
exaggerated reports have little of historical 
value. Probably the first definite report 
touching upon the geography of this sec- 
tion was that carried to Quebec in 1618 by 
Stephen Brule, a fur trader, who heard, 
from the Indians, of the great lake known 
afterwards as Superior. Jean Nicollet, an- 
other trader, reached Green Bay, on Lake 
Michigan, in 1634. and learned something 
of the character of the country lying to the 
west. .A-Ccording to the most authentic rec- 
ords tlie first white men to actually set 
foot on ground now a part of Minnesota. 
were Medard Chouart and Pierre d'Esprit. 
known respectively as Sieur Groseilliers 
and Sieur Radisson. who explored the 
south shore of Lake Superior and visited 
the Sioux Indians on a "large inland lake," 
which was undoubtedly one of the lakes 
in central Minnesc5ta. Du Luth's explora- 
tions in 1679 are quite well authenticated. 
It was he who named the principal streams 
west of Lake Superior, and for whom the 
present city at the head of the lakes was 
named. In the following, year Du Luth 
ascended the Brule, crossed the divide to 
the St. Croix and. descending to the Mis- 
sissippi, met the party sent out by La 
Salle, which had already penetrated to the 
Falls of St. .\ntliony and the Mille Lacs 
region. The explorations of this party 
were recorded by Father Louis Hennepin, 



a Franciscan priest, who accompanied it; 
and, though it is now generally conceded 
that his accounts were untrustworthy, he 
has been honored in the perpetuation of his 
name in connection with the large county 
adjacent to the falls, while the real leader 
of the party, Michael Accault. has been 
forgotten. 

Tlie Later Explorers. 

After Hi nnepin the explorers came more 
frequently and their doings are better au- 
thenticated. Perrot in 1689 gives the first 




CAPTAIN .loNATIlA.N ('AH\ KR. 
Kxplortr of lT6t). 

account of the iMinnesota — then the St. 
Pierre — river. Eleven years afterwards Le 
Sueur ascended that stream, but, with the 
exception of some exploration along the 
Ramy Lake and Lake of the Woods region 
at the north, little further appears to have 
been done towards forming a closer ac- 
quaintance with the country until 1763, 
when the Canadas passed into the hands of 
the British. This caused the first of the 
many divisions of the territory now com- 
prised in Minnesota which took place be- 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



fore the state finally assumed its present 
boundaries. Previous to this time the en- 
tire northwest was claimed by France; now 
that part of the Minnesota of today east of 
the Mississippi passed into the hands of 
England, and all west into the possession 
of Spain. The English made immediate at- 
tempts to secure the trade of the Indian 
trappers, and Jonathan Carver was the first 
and most noted of the English traders who 



Northwest Territory, of Indiana, of Mich- 
igan, and of Wisconsin. But for many 
years it continued to be haunted by Eng- 
lish and French traders. The famous 
Northwest Company was organized in 1783. 
and in 1798 absorbed its principal com- 
petitors and remained for a long time in 
almost complete possession of the trade of 
the region west of Lake Michigan. By the 
terms of the Louisiana purchase of 1803 



i|ll' NOrVliLLE rnANCK 
ijfPar Cuillauni,. DE LISIi'i 

jl j '/ P'linrtr tt.\t,/ra/Jtr*fu Urt/ 

APAtilS 




MAP OF CANADA AND THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 

Compiled in France by De Lisle from information furnished by Le Sueiir and 

T)"Iberville, the explorers. 



explored parts of Wisconsin and Minne- 
sota. Carver's alleged purchase of a vast 
tract oi land, including the site of- St. Paul, 
is still occasionally referred to as furnishing 
a valid basis for title claims on the part 
ef his heirs. Carver visited the Falls of 
St. Anthony in 1766. With the successful 
termination of the Revolution in 1783 that 
part of Minnesota east of the Mississippi 
passed into the control of the United 
States, becoming in turn a part of the 



all that part of Minnesota west of the Mis- 
sissippi became the property of the United 
States. In 1805 this ground became a part 
of the territory of Missouri and passed 
later through the jurisdiction of Michigan, 
Wisconsin and Iowa. Soon after the trans- 
fer of Louisiana from Spain, Capt. Zebu- 
Ion M. Pike was sent into the region of 
the upper Mississippi to explore the rivers 
and expel the British traders. Pike ac- 
quired for the government, by treaty with 



A HALF CENTURY OP MINNESOTA. 



9 



the Sioux, a tract of land including the 
present sites of Fort Snelling reservation 
and the city of Minneapolis, and expelled 
most of the obnoxious traders or secured 
their promises of allegiance. But these 
promises seem to have had little weight, 
for the British influences continued to 
make themselves felt until long after the 
war of 1812. The hard feeling engendered 
by frequent collisions was heightened hy 
the mistaken efforts of Lord Selkirk, who 
founded a colony in United States terri- 
tory on the Red River. Selkirk undoubt- 
edly had the highest of motives, but his 
misdirected colonization was naturally in- 
terpreted as meaning an intention to sc- 



hemes on the Mississippi near Fort Snell- 
ing. They were the first to farm the soil of 
Minnesota, and with true Swiss instincts 
introduced cattle and dairying, thus laying 
the foundations for the present magnificent 
dairy interests of Minnesota. 

Military Occupation. 

Up to this time there had been no regu- 
lar exercise of governmental authority in 
Minnesota. In i8ig that section of the 
present state east of the Mississippi became 
a part of Crawford county, Michigan, but 
there is no record of any exercise of the 
territorial government's powers. The ne- 
cessities of the frontier called for military 




Tin; Ul.a TUWEK t)N THE BLUFF'S EDCiE AT FOKT S^'ELLI^'U. 



cure the rich fur trade of the northwest for 
British interests. 

The First Farmers. 

To Selkirk, however, belongs the credit 
for having first demonstrated the possi- 
bilities of agriculture in Minnesota. A part 
of the emigrants whom the misrepresenta- 
tions of his agents induced to leave their 
homes in Europe were Swiss from the vi- 
cinity of Berne, who were brought to Lake 
Winnipeg in 1822 by the perilous route 
through Hudson Bay, and soon became 
dissatisfied and gradually deserted the Sel- 
kirk colony, and some of them sought 



control, and this was provided by General 
Jacob Brown, then at the head of the 
army, who ordered the establishment of a 
military post at the confluence of the Min- 
nesota and Mississippi rivers. The order 
was issued in February, 1819, and during 
the following summer a military expedition 
reached Mendota. On September loth of 
the following year Col. Josiah Snelling, 
who had taken command, laid the corner- 
stone of the fort which has since borne his 
name. Fort Snelling became the emblem 
of the authority of the United States gov- 
ernment, and the presence of troops at the 



10 



A HALF CEXTURV OF MINNESOTA. 



station undoubtedly had a salutary effect 
upon the Indians. 

Agency System Introduced. 

With the introduction of military power 
came the system of managing the Indians 
through the so-called "Indian agent." The 
first person to hold this position in what 
is now Minnesota was Lawrence Talia- 
ferro, who was appointed by President 
Monroe in 1819, and who became one of 
the striking figures of early Minnesota his- 
tory. He was a veteran of the War of 
1812 and an officer of the regular army 
when appointed Indian agent. Even at 
this early date the Indian question had 
become a troublesome one. There were 
occasional outrages perpetrated upon the 



wheels were installed and wheat and logs 
were converted into flour and lumber. The 
old mill at the Falls of St. Anthony, 
which was a landmark during the earlier 
days of Minnesota, was built to provide 
supplies for the fort, and was constructed 
by the soldiers. At first it produced only 
lumber, but was afterwards fitted up with 
mill stones sent up from St. Louis. The 
only wheat to be ground was that raised at 
Fort Snclling. Later when the improve- 
ment of the Falls of St. Anthony was un- 
dertaken on a more extensive plan, the old 
mill was useful in supplying the lumber 
needed for the dam and mill frames 

Beginnings of Commerce. 

Commerce began in Minnesota when 




RKD RIYER (WRT.s ENHOUTE. 

The earliest form of overland transportation in the Northwest. These cart> were used to ship furs 
from the North\vest Territories to St. Paul and were loaded with merchandise for the 
return trip. This photograph was taken in 1862. 



whites and constant feuds between the 
Ojibways and their hereditary enemies, the 
Dakotahs. It required the training of an 
army officer and the wisdom and courage 
of a veteran to deal successfully with them. 
From all accounts Taliaferro handled the 
savages as well as could be expected, and 
he retained the confidence of the govern- 
ment during his long service, which ex- 
tended to 1840. 

The First Mill Wheels Turn. 

Manufacturing began in Minnesota in 
1821. True, it was on a very meagre scale 
and not on a commercial basis; but water 



the first French explorer bartered with the 
Indians for furs, giving in exchange some 
worthless trinkets which had rare value to 
the savage mind. This sort of traffic be- 
came quite extensive before the end of the 
eighteenth century, and was of sufficient 
importance to warrant the establishment 
of the Northwest company soon after the 
Revolution. But until 1823 the business 
was confined to such means of transpor- 
tation as the Indian canoes or the bateaux 
or Mackinaw boats of the traders. When, 
on May loth, 1823, the steamboat Virginia 
arrived at Fort Snelling and heralded her 
approach with a blast from her whistle 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



U 



which terrorized the waiting assemblage of 
Indians, a new era in the commerce of the 
Northwest was opened. The little Vir- 
ginia — just ii8 feet in length — was the fore- 




MUfi. t'lIAKLOTTE O. V.\N CLEVK. 

Identified with ^linnesota since 1819, when she came 

to Ft. Snellin-;. the l)al).v daughter of Lieut. Clark. 

runner of a great fleet of river steamboats 
which brought immigrants and suppUes to 
the rapidly developing country about Fort 
Snelling, and which, after a while, com- 
menced to take something back to the 
southern markets besides the furs brought 
in by the Indian hunters. For many years 
the bateaux and the famous Red River 
carts remained the only means of transpor- 
tation into the woods and prairies north 
and west of Fort Snelling, and it was not 
until after the war, when railroad building 
commenced in earnest, that the commerce 
of the state began to take on such char- 
acter as to give it importance in the busi- 
ness world. 

The Church and Early Missions, 

The first organization for religious wcirk 
in Minnesota was a Sunday school estab- 
lished at Fort Snelling in 1823 by Mrs. 
Snelling, the wife of the commandant, and 
Mrs. Clark, wife of Capt. Nathan Clark, 
and mother of Mrs. Charlotte O. Van 
Cleve. Some six years later were made 
the first investigations looking to the es- 
tablishment of missions among the In- 
dians. In tlie conduct of this e.xamination 
Rev. Alvan Coe, a Presbyterian clergy- 
man, arrived at Fort Snelling on Septem- 



ber 1st, 1829. He was the first Protestant 
clergyman to enter the territory. The first 
mission among the Indians was founded 
at Leech Lake in 1833 by Rev. W. T. 
Boutwell, a commanding figure for many 
years in the religious life of the territory. 
Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond arrived 
at Fort Snelling in the following spring, 
and became prominent in the early mis- 
sionary and educational work among the 
Sioux. Not a year later Rev. Thomas S. 
Williamson, a missionary of the Presby- 
terian and Congregational denominations, 
was instrumental in founding the first 
church in Minnesota — a Presbyterian 
church of 22 members. Rev. J. D. Stevens, 
who had come out with Mr. Williamson, 
became its pastor. For years it had no 
other place of worship than a room in the 
Fort. Dr. Williamson and Mr. Stevens 
founded two mission stations, one at Lake 
Harriet, now a part of Minneapolis, and 
one at Lac qui Parle, on the Minnesota 
river. Within a few years from this time 
many missionary efforts developed. The 
noted Rev. S. R. Riggs arrived in 1837. 

The First Magistrate. 

The law followed hard upon the church 
— but in a very crude and uncertain man- 




liE.NKY 11. SIBLEY. 
Fir.st (;o\ei'uor of the State of Minnesota— 1S58- 1860. 

ner. In 1835 or 1836 Henry H. Sibley, 
who had settled at Mendota. received a 
commission from the governor of Iowa, 
as justice of the peace. His jurisdiction 



12 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



extended from below Prairie du Chien on 
the Mississippi river to the British pos- 
sessions on the north, and from the Mis- 
issippi river west to the White river. Mr. 
Sibley in later days told many interesting 
experiences in the administration of fron- 
tier justice. His position was such that 
he had almost unlimited power, and the 
exigencies of frontier life made it neces- 
sary for him to use a large discretion. 

In Mr. Sibley the coming state made an 
invaluable acquisition. He came to Men- 
dota in 1834 as the agent of the American 
Fur Company, and two years later built 
there the first stone houses in the state, 
one a residence and one a warehouse. 
From this time he became a leader in all 



Schoolcraft and Nicollet. 

During the thirties came the last of the 
explorers. Henry R. Schoolcraft, in 1832, 
explored the sources of the Mississippi 
river and is entitled to the honor of having 
first traced the great river to its head and 
brought the facts to the attention of geog- 
raphers. It was Schoolcraft who gave the 
name Itasca to the main lake in the basin 
from wMch the Mississippi takes its course. 
Schoolcraft's work was verified by Jean N. 
Nicollet in 1836. Nicollet made much 
more careful examinations and surveys, 
and may be said to have put into scientific 
form the discoveries of his predecessor. It 
was this Nicollet and not the trader of the 




LAKE ITASCA 



and vicinity. 
Fbom Nicollet's Map, now deposited in the 
General Land Office, Washington-, D. C. 
Scale: 90 miles to an locb. 



Kluiii Neill'B His 
the afifairs of the young community, and 
later was called upon to serve the territory 
and state in the highest positions in the 
gift of the people. It has been well said 
of him that for many years the history 
of his life was the history of Minnesota. 
Though a lawyer. Gen. Sibley never prac- 
ticed his profession, though he did hang 
out his "shingle" when he first settled at 
Mendota. thus acquiring the distinction of 
being the first lawyer of Minnesota. 

It was not until 1847 that a term of 
court was held within the present limits 
of Minnesota. This was at Stillwater. In 
1848 the first court house was erected by 
the people of Stillwater. 



toi-y of Miniiesot;!. 

seventeenth century, whose name has been . 
perpetuated in the nomenclature of Min- 
nesota. 

Gov. Dodge's Treaty. 

Jurisdiction over the wilderness about 
the upper Mississippi river had shifted 
many times during the period of later ex- 
ploration. In 1834 that part of the region 
west of the Mississippi became a part of 
Michigan, being separated from Missouri 
for that purpose. But with the organiza- 
tion of Wisconsin territory in 1836 every- 
thing west of the river was made a part of 
Iowa territory. These changes signified 
but little, for the great country west and 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA, 



13 



northwest of Fort Snelling was almost un- 
known and was commonly spoken of as 
"The Indian Coimtry." There were few 
settlers, and these held their claims with- 




The oldest livinfi: ^linnesota pionefr. 

out authority. But in 1837 Gov. Dodge, of 
Wisconsin, acting as a government com- 
missioner, made a treaty with the Ojib- 
ways by which they ceded their lands east 
of the Mississippi, and during the same 
year a similar treaty was effected with the 
Dakotahs. 

With the expectation that this treaty 
would be ratified by congress and that set- 
tlers would thus secure the right to pat- 
ents for their lands, a steady movement 
■of immigration set in even during the last 
months of 1837. 

Cities in Embryo. 

It had seemed probable that Mendota, 
or St. Peters, as it was at first called, 
would be the site of the first city in Min- 
nesota. Here Sibley and Faribault estab- 
lished their trading posts and here the first 
permanent buildings outside of Fort Snell- 
ing were erected. But the earlier opening 
of the territory east of the Mississippi to 
settlement changed the course of events. 
Only on that bank of the river was it 
possible to obtain title to government 
land. So, in the spring of 1838, when the 
news of the treaty with the Indians ar- 
rived, Pierre Parrant, a worthless scamp 
who had been idling about Fort Snell- 



ing for several years, hastened across the 
river and staked out a claim just outside 
the reservation — a vantage point where he 
could without molestation sell whiskey to 
the Indians and the passing traders. His 
cabin was the first to be built in what 
afterwards became St. Paul. 

Simultaneously, but with far different 
motives, Franklin Steele built the first hut 
in St, Anthony — the beginnings of the city 
of Minneapolis. Mr. Steele had recog- 
nized the value of a claim adjacent to the 
magnificent water power of the falls, and 
made a night march from Fort Snelling. 
succeeding in forestalling an equally en- 
thusiastic but not as energetic competitor. 

Parrant's claim was soon surrounded by 
others, and in time the hamlet became 
known as Pig's Eye. Abraham Perret, one 
of the Swiss settlers from Selkirk's un- 
lucky colony, was the second to establish 
himself near Parrant. Benjamin and 
Pierre Gervais, Rondo and others of the 
very early settlers in St. Paul, were also 
of this colony, and had been living on the 
reservation since 1827. Charles Perret, or 
Perry as he is known, the oldest son of 
-\braham Perret, is undoubtedlv the oldest 




\ 

REV. LUCIE^' G.\LTIER. 

Itiiiliiei- of the chupel which gave a name to St. Paul. 

livin.u; Minnesota pioneer. He still resides 
near I^ake Johanna in Ramsey county, and 
is now 83 years of age. 

Mrs. Cfiarlotte O. Van Cleve, however, 



14 



A HALF CENTURY OP MINNESOTA. 



came to Fort Snelling in 1819. the baby 
daughter of Lieut, and Mrs. Nathan Clark. 
Her fatlier being an army officer, made no 
settlement in Minnesota, and it was not 
until 1S56 when Mrs. Van Cleve returned 
to Minnesota with her husband and settled 
at Long Prairie, that she became a per- 
manent resident. As she spent her child- 
hood at Fort Snelling, her reminiscences 
of early times in Minnesota are of the 
deepest interest. 



down the river and staked out a claim and 
built a cabin at Marine. Early in the next 
year a saw mill was built. These were the 
beginnings of the settlement of the St. 
Croi.x valley. Stillwater was laid out in 
1843. The proprietors of the town site, 
John McCusick. Calvin Leach, Elam 
Greeley and Elias McKean, at once began 
to erect another saw mill. Joseph R. 
Brown, a man famous in the early history 




(,11.\PEL OF ST. P.\l ).. 
Built by F:ttlier iialtier in 1841. It gave a nam*; to tlit 
citv of Minnesota. 



i-a|)itHl 



111 1841 Rev. Lucien Galtier. a Catholic 
priest, erected a chapel in the village and 
dedicated it to Saint Paul, thus supplying 
the name of the future capital of the state. 

The first cabin w'as built at the falls of 
the St. Croix in the autumn of 1837. and the 
next year a saw mill was erected. Early 
in the winter of 1838 Jeremiah Russell and 
L. W. Stratton, who had been interested 
in the St. Croix Falls settlement, walked 



of Minnesota, had already made a claim 
near, and took an active part in the devel- 
opment of the St. Croix valley. He had 
come to Minnesota with the troops in 1819. 
but in 1825 left the army and engaged in 
trade. He was the first man to raft Min- 
nesota lumber. Brown took a prominent 
part in territorial political life, and was at 
one time state territorial printer. In many 
ways he was the typical Minnesota pioneer. 




The Territory. 

18^9-1858. 



The Stillwater Convention. 

For several years previous to the actual 
creation of Minnesota Territory it was evi- 
dent that some such organization was de- 
stined to be formed; for the enabling act 
under which Wisconsin became a state de- 
fined the western boundary at the St. 
Croix river and left a large section of what 
had been a part of Wisconsin territory en- 
tirely outside of any state or territorial 
boundaries. This was the condition of all 
that part of the present Minnesota lying 
between the Mississippi and St. Croix riv- 
ers. It had formed a part of St. Croix 
county, Wisconsin. This is the only in- 
stance remembered in which a part of a 
state or territory had been dropped out of 
its original connection to be left for a time 
without any form of government. The sec- 
tion thus left adrift by congress contained 
most of the population of Minnesota. There 
were the villages of Stillwater, St. Paul 
and St. Anthony, and a good many scatter- 
ed settlers along the two rivers. Immedi- 
ately upon the passage of the enabling act 
for Wisconsin an attempt was made to se- 
cure the organization of a territory to be 
called "Minnesota," but the bill failed of 
passage. For two years the people of Mm- 
ncsota continued their agitations. These 
culminated in the summer of 1848 in the 
famous Stillwater convention, which was 
attended by such men as General H. H. 
Sibley, Franklin Steele. Morton S. Wilkin- 
son, David Lambert, William D. Phillips 
and Henry L. Moss. There were no for- 
malities of credentials; the people simply 
came together to take some action. With 
•entire unanimity the convention adopted a 
petition to congress praying the organiza- 
tion of Minnesota Territory. Gen. Sibley 
was delegated to visit Washington and 
present the petition. It was Sibley who 
urged the name "Minnesota," and he was 
subsequently successful in maintaining this 
'^election against arguments in favor of oth- 
er names, made in congress. It was at this 



convention that the famous agreement was 
first proposed by which St. Paul was to 
become the capital of the proposed state, 
■ while Stillwater was to have the penitenti- 
ary and St. Anthony the university. 

Wisconsin Territory Again. 

Shortly after the Stillwater convention 
some one advanced the theory that the or- 
ganization of the state of Wisconsin from 




ALEXANDER KAJls^EV. 

First Governor of Jliimesota Territory, War Governor 

of the State, V. S. Senator and Cabinet Oflicial. 

a part of the territory of Wisconsin did 
not disorganize the remainder of the orig- 
inal territory, and after due consideration 
a territorial government was revived and 
Gen. Sibley duly elected as delegate to 
congress. He went to Washington in a 
dual capacity — as a representative of a ter- 
ritory having a very doubtful claim to 
recognition and as a delegate from a mass 
convention. Claiming a seat under the first 



16 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



of these characters, Gen. Sibley found him- 
self precipitated into a warmly contested 
fight, which ended, however, after some 
weeks, in his admission to congress; that 
body thereby establishing the precedent 
that "the division of an organized territory 
and the admission of a part as a state into 
the Union, does not annul the continuance 
of the territorial government over the por- 
tion remaining." 

Minnesota Territorv Organized. 

Gen. Sibley's fight foi a seat in the house 
of representatives brought so clearly before 
the members the actual state of affairs in 
the northwest that there was no further 
active opposition to the creation of a new 
territory, and on March 3d, 1849. the or- 
ganic act was passed. But for more than 



tory and state; who was to serve Minne- 
sota in many honored positions; who was 
to take an active part in the affairs of the 
nation and who. surviving many of his 
contemporaries, was to live to see half a 
century of Minnesota's progress and re- 
joice in the wonderful development which 
has taken place in the span of one man's 
active life. This was Alexander Ramsey, 
who was a practicing lawyer in Harrisburg. 
Pa., when he was appointed governor of 
Minnesota Territory by President Taylor. 
Within four days after his arrival in Min- 
nesota he issued a prorlamation declaring 
the territory duly organized. The other 
officers were: C. K. Smith, of Ohio, sec- 
retary; A. Goodrich, of Tennessee, chief 
justice; D. Cooper, of Pennsylvania, and 
B. B. Meeker, of Kentucky, associate jus- 




A HISTOIUCAL BUILDING. 

The Central House, St. Paul, where the first Minnesota Territorial Legislature met. It wa? erected in l*}'.t, 
at the corner of Minnesota and Bench Streets. 



a month the people of the new territory 
were in ignorance of the success of their 
plans. In those days the Mississippi river 
was the only route from the east and, as 
now, the Mississippi was solidly frozen un- 
til well along in the spring. On April 
9th the first steamer of the season to force 
its way through the ice, rounded the bend 
below St. Paul, and by repeated blasts of 
its whistle announced the news that Min- 
nesota had come into being. 

Governor Ramsey's Arrival. 

On May 27th, 1849, there arrived at St. 
Paul a man who was to have a very large 
part in shaping the career of the new terri- 



tices; Joshua L. Taylor, marshal; and H. 
L. Moss, United States attorney. Another 
proclamation soon afterwards divided the 
territory into three temporary judicial dis- 
tricts and assigned the three justices among 
them. 

The First Term of Court. 

Judicial proceedings under the territorial 
government commenced with the holding 
of a term of court at Stillwater by Chief 
Justice Goodrich during the second week 
of August, 1849. On this occasion nineteen 
lawyers were present to take the oath as 
attorneys, and of this number only one, 
Henrv L. ]\Ioss, of St. Paul, has survived 



A HAL,P CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



In sec a Iialf century 
cisions. 



Minnesota de- 



The First Legislative Session. 

Gciv. Ramsey, as soon as possible, or- 
dered a census as the basis for an appor- 
tionment and an election for tlie purpose of 
choosing members of the territorial legis- 
lature and a delegate to congress. The 
election was duly held on August ist of 
that year, and the legislatitre, composed of 
J/ members, assembled on September ,5d. 
In the absence of any capitol this first ses- 
sion of a Minnesota legislature was held 
in the Central House, the first hotel in St. 



Minnesota in iS^g. 

.\ map of the Territory of Minnesota 
when its government was organized would 
liave been in strange contrast to the map 
of 1899. The eastern, southern and north- 
ern boundaries were much the same as 
now, but on the west the territory ex- 
tended to the Missouri and White Earth 
rivers, thus including much of the Dako- 
tas. So much of this vast region was un- 
known that the lines of lakes and rivers 
could only be put on at random. Of rail- 
roads there was, of course, none. If cor- 
rectly filled out the map would have shown 
a town at Stillwater of about Coo people. 




IHE cil.l) MILL NEAR SHAKOFEE. 
Built b.v (iideuu Pond, the Missionary to the Indians near the old Mission House. 



Paul. It was a plain two-story building 
which had just been erected at the corner 
of Third and Exchange streets. The sec- 
retary and the representatives found ac- 
commodations on the first floor, while the 
council, of nine members, met in a room 
above. At this first legislative session the 
territory was divided into judicial districts 
and nine counties were created. Gov. 
Ramsey's message gave much good advice 
as to the shaping of the affairs of the new 
territory. One of the acts ot the session 
was the incorporation of the Historical 
Society of Minnesota. 



Along the St. Croi.x were also the villages 
of Marine and Lake St. Croix of about 
200 inhabitants each. Little Canada and 
St. Anthony together had about 575 peo- 
ple and Mendota 122. These were almost 
the only towns in the territory. There was 
a trading post at Wabasha credited (in the 
crude census taken by the sheriff (as pro- 
vided in the organic act) with over a hun- 
dred people. In the same way "Crow 
Wing and Long Prairie" were said to have 
350 people: Osakis Rapids. 13,3: Snake 
River, 82: Crow Wing (again"). 174; Big 
Stone Lake and Lac qui Parle. 68; Crow 



18 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



Wing, east side, 70; Red Wing, village, 33, 
and so on. It is feared that this census 01 
1849 was as liable to criticisms as some 
of a later date. There are evidences that 
half-breeds, temporary French traders and 
possibly Indians were counted in to make 
a favorable showing. Fort Snelling was 
given 38 people and "soldiers, women and 
children in forts" were numbered as 317. 
Pembina was credited with a population of 
637, and along the Missouri river 86 set- 
tlers were enumerated, though it is not at 
all probable that any census taker visited 
that distant part of the territory. But 
whatever its inaccuracies, this first census 
of Minnesota served its purpose — that of 
providing a basis of representation in the 
territorial legislature, and incidentally, of 
advertising the new territory to the world. 
However, more potent advertising forces 
were at hand. 

Advent of the Press. 

Minnesota's pioneer journalist was 
James M. Goodhue, who arrived at St. 
Paul on April 18, 1849, scarce a week after 




COL. .JOHN U STEVENS. 

Minneapolis pioneer and life lung patron of 

ai^riciilture. 

the news that the territory had been creat- 
ed. Goodhue was a lawyer, but had been 
editing a paper at Lancaster, Wisconsin. 
When he heard that Minnesota had been 
made a territory, he packed his plant and 
took the first steamer for St. Paul. Ten 
days after his arrival he issued the first 
number of "The Minnesota Pioneer." 



About the same time Dr. A. Randall and 
John P. Owens issued at Cincinnati the 
first number of '"The Minnesota Register." 
dating it "St. Paul, April 27, 1849" It 
therefore bears date one day earlier than 
Mr. Goodhue's paper, but as it was not 
printed in Minnesota, Mr. Goodhue's title 
to being the first newspaper publisher in 
the state remains clear. "The Register" 
was moved to St. Paul and the second 
number was gotten oi't on July 14 by 
McLean & Owen. James Hughes reached 
St. Paul early in June and started "The 
Minnesota Chronicle." After a few weeks 
it became evident that the young town 
could not support so many papers, and the 
■•Chronicle and Register" was the result 
of the first newspaper consolidation m 
Minnesota. Notwithstanding this experi- 
ence, "The Minnesota Democrat," con- 
ducted by Daniel A. Robertson, made its 
■appearance in the following December. In 
the spring of 1851 Isaac Atwater com- 
menced the publication of "The St. An- 
thonv Express." the forerunner of many 
later' newspaper ventures in Minneapolis. 
The first paper to be published west of 
the Mississippi river in Minnesota was 
■ The Glencoe Register," founded by Col. 
John H. Stevens. Goodhue's press, on 
which the Pioneer was first printed, was 
the same first used in the office of "The 
Dubuque Visitor," and is said to have been 
the first printing press ever used west of 
the Mississippi river and north of the Mis- 
souri. 

The Original Counties. 
One of the first acts of the first terri- 
torial legislature was the division of the 
territory into counties. Washington. Ram- 
sey and Benton counties were instituted 
from the country east of the Mississippi. 
This was the only part of the territory 
which had been ceded by the Indians, and 
contained the bulk of the meagre popula- 
tion. Stillwater was made county seat of 
Washington. St. Paul of Ramsey (which 
included St. Anthony), and a site was se- 
lected for the county town of Benton, 
which afterwards became Sauk Rapids. 
The other counties were Dahkotah, Wah- 
natah, Wabashaw, Pembina, Itasca and 
Mankato. Mendota was the county seat 
of Dakotah county, Wabashaw of the 
county bearing that name, and Pembina of 
the northwestern county, which was as 
large as several good sized states. The 
other counties did not at first have any 
local organization. County elections were 
held on the fourth ^londay of November. 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA 



l'.» 



Party Organization Appears. 

There had been some politics in the cre- 
ation of Minnesota territory, but up to this 
time there had been no party organization. 
The first legislature was chosen without 
much regard to old party lines. But dur- 
ing its session the first democratic caucus 
in Minnesota was held at the house of H. 
M. Rice in St. Paul. At this meeting it 
was determined to hold a state conven- 
tion and perfect organization, and in the 
following month the convention was duly 
held in the A.merican House. It does not 
appear that politics — along national party 
lines — cut much figure in the management 
of the territory. The only participation 
which the territory had in the affairs of 
the nation was through a delegate to con- 
gress, who, of course, had no vote in that 
body. At the election of a delegate in 
1850 the close vote between H. H. Sibley 
and A. M. Mitchell was not divided along 
party lines at all, but was based entirely 
upon personal preferences. Gen. Sibley 
was elected by a vote of 649 to 559. The 
territorial legislators were all chosen, 
according to the best authorities, largely 
on local issues rather than party divisions. 
It was not until 1855. when the Republican 
party was organized, that political contests 
became animated. 

The Tri-Partite Agreement. 

At the second session of the territorial 
legislature, which opened on January ist, 
1851, the famous division of the three in- 
stitutions — the capitol, the penitentiary and 
the university — between St. Paul, Still- 
water and St. Anthony, took place. There 
had been an understanding to this effect at 
the Stillwater convention of 1848, but the 
arrangement was not completed without 
considerable manifestation of feeling. 

Foundations of an Educational Svstem 
Laid. 

The first schools in Minnesota were 
those taught by missionaries among the 
Indians. As the white population in- 
creased and the need of the settlements 
became apparent, desultory attempts at 
private education were made, but the 
first organized schools were taught by 
teachers sent out in 1847 and 1848 by the 
National Popular Education Society. Miss 
Harriet E. Bishop opened the first school 
room in St. Paul; Miss Amanda M. Hos- 
ford commenced teaching in 1848 at Still- 
water, and Miss Elizabeth Backus in 1849 
at St. AnthoBv. Other ladies were sent 



out by the same society, and they were re- 
tained in most instances after the school 
system was established, upon the recom- 
mendation of Gov. Ramsey, by the terri- 
torial legislature in 1849. Under the or- 
ganic act of Minnesota two sections in 
each township were reserved for the school 
system. This very wise provision and the 
subsequent wisdom displayed in the man- 
agement of these school lands have com- 
bined to greatly assist in the developmenS 
of the school system. Rev. E. D. Neill 
was appointed territorial superintendent of 
schools in 1851, and through his excellent 




KEY. EDWAUD D. NEILL. 
Clergyman, Educator, Historian. 

services during two years in office, added 
largely to the debt which Minnesota owes 
him as a leader during the formative peri- 
od. His efforts in behalf of education, the 
church, libraries and historical research 
made a strong impression on the develop- 
ments in the higher life of the state. 

It is to the credit of the pioneers of Min- 
nesota that an institution of higher learn- 
ing was contemplated in the earliest days. 
With whom the suggestion originated is 
not a matter of record, but at the time of 
the Stillwater convention, in 1848, it ap- 
pears to have been the general understand- 
ing that the coming state was to have a 
university. In pursuance of the general 
understanding, Gov. Ramsey recommend- 
ed in his message to the second territorial 
legislature that a university be established. 



\ \ 



Jiljll '' 



"7^5 



PrSV 'S^ 




!JS 


r 


1 '"^'jij^V 


n 


1 1 
) 

1 
) 

|l 
1 


'1 1 1 

ill' ' 
11' '' 



A HALl'' C'E\TUR>' OF MINNESOTA. 



21 



and a bill creating the institution was in- 
troduced by J. W. North, of St. Anthony. 
and shortly became a law. There was no 
appropriation carried by this act. and the 
first board of re.yents found itself without 
means to estabHsh the work proposed. 
But a memorial to congress had been 
passed, and in the following year two 
townships were reserved for the uses of 
the institution. As there was little pros- 
pect of realizing upon this grant imme- 
diately, Franklin Steele, in 1852, presented 
the regents with a block of land near the 
present site of the Minneapolis exposition 
building, and erected a two-story frame 
building which was to Ue used as a pre- 
paratory school for the university. With' 
cheerful ootimism, it was believed that by 
the time any students were "prepared." 
the university itself would be ready to re- 
ceive them. This preparatory school was 
opened by Rev. E. W. ^[errill. But it 
soon became evident that the site was un- 
suitable for a permanent university, and 
the present campus was acquired by gift 
and purchase in 1854. In 1856 the first 
building was commenced, but its comple- 
tion was prevented by the financial panic 
of 1857, and remained an unfinished under- 
taking until after the war. 

I,ibraries w'ere instituted in Minnesota 
contemporaneously with schools; two 
such organizations were authorized by the 
first session of the territorial legislature. 
One of these, the St. Anthony Library As- 
sociation, was undoubtedly the first circu- 
lating library in Minnesota. It commenced 
with a collection of 200 volumes in the 
fall of 1849, and tinder its auspices a series 
of lectures were given during that winter. 
The Minnesota Historical Society, the 
main purpose of which was the collection 
of a historical library, was organized on 
November 15. 1849, with Gov. Ramsey as 
president and Charles K. Smith as secre- 
tary. There is no record of any rooms 
occupied by the society until 1855, when 
a room was obtained in the capitol build- 
ing, but it is known that the collec- 
tion of books and manuscripts commenced 
shortly after organization. 

The organic act of Minnesota territory 
appropriated $5,000 for a state library to 
be maintained for the use of the state 
otTicials. This library was organized in 
1851. For many years its purpose has 
lieen simply to provide law books and peri- 
odicals and public documents. No attempt 
has been made since very early days to 
maintain a general library. 



The Minnesota Valley Opened. 

Since the days 01 Car\er and Le Sueur 
longing eyes had been looking towards 
ilic beautiful \alley of tlie St. Peter river, 
but only the hardiest of the pioneers dared 
\enture into this country which the fierce 
Sioux still claimed as their own. With 
the exce])tion of the missionaries living 
at Shakojjee. Traverse des Sioux and I.ac 
qui Parle, a few traders and possibly an 
occasional s(|uatter. tliere were no white 
men living in the valley when Minnesota 
becatne a territory. It was understood 
that a cession from tlie Indians would soon 
be sought, and with an eye to future trade 
several adventurous steamboat captains 
turned their craft into the Minnesota dur- 
ing the summer of 1850, and explgred its 
sinuous course for a long distance. The 
famous old-time steamer, "Anthony 
\\'ayne," made two trips, going finally 
almost to the site of Alankato. A few 
days later the "Yankee" took a party of 
St. Paul people up as far as the mouth of 
the Cottonwood river. 

But the treaty of cession was put off un- 
til another year. At last, during the clos- 
ing days of July and the early part of Au- 
gust, 1851, Col. Luke Lea. commissioner 
of Indian affairs for the United States, and 
Gov. Ramsey, acting for the government, 
met with the great councils of the Dako- 
tahs and secured the much desired ces- 
sions. Through two treaties the United 
States secured practically all the Indian 
lands west of the Mississippi to the Siou.x 
river, from central Minnesota south far 
into Iowa. The Sisseton and Wahpaytoan 
Dakotahs reserved a dwelling place about 
100 miles long and 20 broad, extending on 
both sides of the Minnesota from the Yel- 
low Medicine river to Lake Traverse. The 
reservation of the M'dewakantonwan and 
Wahpaykootay bands was immediately be- 
low. 

Within a few years there were promising 
settlements all along the Minnesota as far 
as the Cottonwood. Thomas A. Holmes 
settled at Shakopee in 1851 and laid out 
Chaska during the same year. Sibley 
county was settled at Henderson in 1852 by 
French Canadians and Germans. The year 
1852 also saw the beginning of Mankato 
and LeSueur, George W. Thompson being 
the pioneer at the former place and P. K. 
Johnson and Henry Jackson at the latter. 
Brown county had, perhaps, the most in- 
teresting settlement of all. German emi- 
gration societies were formed at Chicago 
and Cincinnati on a sort of co-operative 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



plan, and explorers were sent out to select 
a site. They chose the Minnesota valley 
near the Cottonwood, and the first party 
came from Chicago in 1854, settling at Mil- 
ford. Soon afterward? they moved and 
founded New Ulm. In 1857 the Cincin- 
nati emigrants chartered a steamer and 
made the voyage from their city to New 
Ulm without transfer. During the early 
times in the colony the lands w'cre appor- 
tioned among the members of the society 
so that each should have a certain number 
of town lots and equal acreage in the farm 
lands. When Brown county was organ- 
ized in 1855 it comprised the entire south- 
western part of the territory from the Min- 
nesota to the Missouri river. All the older 
Minnesota valley counties were organized 
from 1853 to 1855. 

Pioneering on the Upper Mississippi. 

With fourteen years' advantage in the 
matter of Indian cession, it would ap- 
pear that the eastern bank nf the Mis- 



Stearns county on the west was not set ofif 
until 1855. 

As early as 1794 there was a trading post 
at Sandy Lake. The first post which after- 
wards grew into a settlement was that es- 
tablished at Crow Wing about 1844. The 
names of Allen Morrison, Donald Mc- 
Donald and Philip Beaupre are associated 
with this settlement. At the time of the 
creation of the territory. Crow Wing was 
a considerable town, but afterwards it was 
alinost abandoned in favor of Brainerd. 
Crow Wing county was not organized un- 
til 1857. There was a trading post at Swan 
River in Morrison county in 1826, but ac- 
tual settlement dated from the late forties, 
when William Nicholson and William 
Aitkin established themselves near what is 
now Little Falls. Jeremiah Russell was 
the first settler at Sauk Rapids in 1849, and 
Antoine Guion became a permanent resi- 
dent at Anoka in 1851. Pierre Bottineau, 
of early territorial fame, built a tavern at 
Llk River in 1850 and laid the foundations 




III.I) BLOCK HOUSE AT FORT RIPLEY. 

Ont' of the few siirv i\ore of the buildiDy:e of the most importaut military pu^t iiortln 



I est of Foit Suelliu'' 



(luring the pioneer daye 

sissippi river above the Falls of St. An- 
thony would have made greater progress 
than the valley of the Minnesota, but such 
was not the case. There were more trad- 
ing posts on the upper Mississippi in the 
forties than further south, but the country 
was not highly regarded for farming pur- 
poses, and the lumbering industry had not 
yet developed. One county organization, 
that of Benton, served for the entire east- 
ern bank of the river until 1856, and 



of Sherburne county. S. B. Lowry estab- 
lished a trading post at St. Cloud in 1849. 
but the first actual settler was Ole Berge- 
son, who took up land in 1852. Wright 
county was settled in the same year. 

One of the important settlements on the 
west bank of the river was not hindered 
by waiting for the Indian treaty. In 1849 
Col. John H. Stevens obtained permission 
to settle on the military reservation oppo- 
site St. Anthonv. and built the first house 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



23 



in Minneapolis. The tract was soon 
thrown open to general settlement. In 
1854 the two villages were connected by 
the first bridge which ever spanned the 
Mississippi river at any point. 

Though French traders are known to 
have reached the site of Duluth in 1640, 
there was no settlement in that vicinity 
nntil 1850-51, when George E. Nettleton 
and J. B. Culver established a trading post 
at Fond du Lac and entered claims for 
land. Nettleton built the first house in 
Duluth in 185 1. Five years later the city 
was platted and in 1856 the first saw mill 
was erected. Duluth's wonderful lake 
commerce did not begin to develop until 
many years afterwards. 

In Southern Minnesota. 

The continually growing commerce on 
the Mississippi river below St. Paul aided 
in the development of the towns along the 
western bank. The trading posts of Wa- 



fer spending the congressional grant of 
$20,000, providing for a commission, which 
in turn secured a site from Charles Bazille 
and decided on plans for a buildjjig. to cost 
$.33,000. As the actual cost only exceed- 
ed this estimate by about thirty per cent, 
the old commission cannot be charged with 
being more e.xtravagant than some later 
bodies entrusted with tlie erection of pub- 
lic buildings. Work was commenced on 
July 21. 1851, but the building was not oc- 
cupied until two years later. 

Gorman's Administration. 

With the incoming of a new national 
administration in 1853 Gov. Ramsey's seat 
was given to Willis A. Gorman, of Indi- 
ana, who was appointed by President 
Pierce. Gov. Gorman arrived in St. Paul 
on May 13. His associates were J. T. 
Rosser, of Virginia, appointed secretary of 
the territory, and W. H. Welch, of Red 
Wing, chief justice, and Moses Sherburne, 



#^-: 




THE FIRST^CAPITOL OK MINNKISOTA. 

Hy permission of the Minnesota Ilietorical Society. 



basba and Red Wing quickly grew to vil- 
lage proportions after the ceding of the 
Indian lands, and Winona, Lake City. 
Reed's Landing, Hastings and other vil- 
lages were established and began to assert 
themselves. Nor were the immigrants 
long in striking back over the hills into 
the interior of Southern Minnesota. So 
rapidly did they fill up southeastern Min- 
nesota tliat Goodhue. Wabasha and Rice 
counties were created in 1853. Two years 
later Fillmore, Freeborn, Mower, Houston, 
Olmstead, Steele and Winona counties had 
been added to the list. 

The Old Capitol. 

Minnesota enjoyed the luxury of a Capi- 
tol commission even in territorial days. 
The legislature of 1851 made arrangements 



of Maine, and A. G. Chatfiehl. of Wiscon- 
sin, associate jus_tices. Gov. Gorman's ad- 
ministration covered the period of the wild- 
est and most extravagant speculation 
whicli Minnesota has ever experienced. 
When he took his seat immigrants were 
pouring into the territory in thousands. 
From 1850 to 1855 the population had in- 
creased from 6.000 to 53.000: in two years 
more it had reached 150.000. Stimulated 
by the inpouring of people and the natural 
demand for land, real estate speculation be- 
came a craze. Fortunes were made in 
months and weeks, and sometimes even 
in days. The towns were growing very 
rapidly, everyone was employed and con- 
tinued prosperity seemed assured. People 
thought 01 nothing but business; it would 
seem that the higher things which received 



2i 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



so much attention a few years l)efore were 
for tlie time neglected. Honest people 
forgot their reputations and entered specu- 
lation aniJraud with the crowd of sharp- 
ers which invaded the territory. Town 
sites were laid out eveiywiiere — and no- 
where. Lots ha\ing no location except on 
paper were sold and resold at great profit. 
Trades and trade *vere abandoned for real 
estate speculation. The people were land 
mad. The center of this craze was. of 
course, in St. Paul, the chiet city and capi- 
tal of the territory. The smaller towns 




rll-\RI.KS E. Kl,.\N|}|{E.\r. 

Pioneer lawyer anil Justice of the Suin-enie Ccinrt, 

185V-64. 

were relatively less affected, as their lesser 
importance made them less attractive to 
speculators. 

The inevitable reaction came at last. 
With the beginning of the financial panic 
in August, 1857, the bubble burst. In St. 
Paul nearly all of tne DanKs and business 
firms failed. Real estate which had been 



regarded as a fortune to its owners be- 
came worthless. The poi)ulation of the city 
decreased one-half and stores and houses 
stood vacant. A very similar experience 
was the lot of the towns of Minneapolis 
and St. Anthony. 

Towards the close of Gorman's a<lmin- 
istration came an attempt to remove the 
capital to St. Peter, an occurrence which 
for the time being caused more excitement 
in the territory than th.i real estate craze. 
Believing that justice was on their side, 
the opponents of removal hid the bill after 
it liad passed both houses, and after most 
exciting scenes prevented it from receiv- 
ing the ofticial signature. Railroad legis- 
lation was demanded by the people, and 
ended in 1857 in the gift of the railroad 
land grant to the promoters of what 
seemed a promising railroad project. 

Indian Troubles of 1857. 

L'p to this time the settlement of .Min- 
nesota had been unattended with any seri- 
ous collisions with the Indians. With few 
exceptions, the Indians appeared to be 
well satisfied with the treatment of the 
whites, and very lew outrages are record- 
ed. But early in 1857 an Indian named 
Inkpadootah. who li.nd been driven out of 
his trilie — the Dakotahs — with a small band 
' cif followers, quarrelled with the settlers 
at .Spirit Lake. Iowa, and after murdering 
about twenty people in that vicinity, 
crossed the line into Minnesota and mas- 
sacred the entire settlement at Springfield. 
Only a few women were spared, and these 
were carried into captivity. One of them 
was finally released, but the others were 
murdered before help could reach them. 
With few exceptions, the Indians engaged 
in this massacre escaped punishment. This 
massacre, in wdiich about fifty settlers lost 
their lives, was a gloomy episode of the 
close of the territorial period and fore- 
shadowed the greater horrors which were 
to bathe southwestern Minnesota in blood 
during the early years of statehood. 




The State. 

1858-1899. 



Minnesota's elevation to statehood was 
attended by quite as exciting political dis- 
turbances as those which preceded her re- 
cognition as a territory. PoUtically the 
situation was very much mixed. Minne- 
sota was large enough to become a state — 
the population was about 150,000 — but the 
new commonwealth would be a "free 
state." For many years the slave states 
had fought against the admission of north- 
ern states which, through their representa- 
tion at Washington, would tend to overbal- 
ance the Southerners' influence in the na- 
tional government, and until the admission 
of California a balance between the sec- 
tions had been well maintained. Then 
came the great contest over Kansas and 
Nebraska — a contest which nearly precipi- 
tated civil war several years before actual 
secession — and Minnesota's proposed ad- 
mission came up at a moment when the 
bitterness between the two sections had 
reached the boiling point. 

The Battle m Congress. 

When Henry M. Rice, the delegate from 
the Territory of Minnesota, introduced a 
Minnesota enabling act on December 24th. 
1856, he only added fresh fuel to the fac- 
tional war in congress. The bill fared well 
in the house, where it was sure of a fairly 
good majority, but in the senate the fight 
was long. It lasted, in fact, to the very 
close of the session. Of course the issue 
was not made directly upon the slavery 
question. The opponents of the bill found 
a convenient subject for discussion in a 
provision of the bill which made it pos- 
sible for aliens to exercise the franchise un- 
der certain conditions. An amendment 
changing this provision served to keep the 
senators talking. The amendment once 
carried and the bill was passed as amended, 
but soon afterwards the whole matter was 
reconsidered. The attitude of the oppo- 
nents seemed to be that, if amended, the 
•lill would scarcely get through the busi- 



ness of the house before the end of the 
session, while, if they kept it hanging about 
the senate, its death would be equally cer- 
tain. But the energy of the Northern sen- 
ators prevented this fate. Repeated bring- 
ing forward of the measure finally tired out 
opposition and the enabling act became a 
law on February 25. 1857. 

The Battle at Home. 

It is possible that rumors casting a doubt 
on the political complexion of the coming 
state may have had something to do with 
the final acquiescence of the Southern sen- 
ators. At all events, as soon as the en- 
abling act was passed, there began a most 
intense partisan struggle for the control of 
the constitutional convention and the elec- 
tion of the first set of state officials. Un- 
der the terms of the enabling act delegates 
to a constitutional convention were to be 
elected on the first Monday in June, and 
the convention was to be held at the capital 
on the second Monday in July. Unfortu- 
nately the exact hour of meeting was not 
specified. The election of delegate was 
hotly contested, but resulted, it was be- 
lieved, in the election of a republican ma- 
jority. Some very close districts and pos- 
sibilities of contests for seats left the mat- 
ter aggravatingly uncertain as to the exact 
condition. As the day of the convention 
approached there was talk of possible sharp 
practice, and to prevent any attempt on 
the part of the democrats to organize the 
convention, the republican members quietlv 
took possession of the legislative hall on 
Sunday at midnight, and were in readiness 
for anything which ihight be attempted. 
However, the democratic wing made no 
move until noon of the appointed day 
When the democrats entered the hall 
Charles L. Chase, the secretary of the ter- 
ritory, attempted to call the convention to 
order and J. W. North, on behalf of the 
republican majority, at the same moment 
performed the same duty. Mr. Chase then 



A HALF CENTURV OF MINNESOTA. 



put a motion to adjourn and the democrats 
voted for it and at once left the hall, while 
the republicans, confident of their majority, 
remained and organized the convention. It 
was found that the republican body actually 
had 59 members and the democratic wing 

but S3- 

Thus commenced one of the most re- 
markable episodes in the history of the 
state. The democrats, in a few days, met 
in another hall and organized. Feeling 
ran high. Neither convention would recog- 
nize the other, and both continued in in- 
dependent session for several weeks. At 
last it became evident to the cooler heads 
that such procedure would certainly defeat 
the objects of the gathering; that congress 
would be unwilling to ratify the action of 
either body and that statehood would be 
sacrified to patisan feeling. Good counsels 
finally prevailed, and on August 29th, both 
conventions adopted the same constitution, 
which was subsequently ratified by the peo- 
ple. Coincident with this ratification was 
the election of the first state officers and of 
the first representatives in congress. In 
this election the democrats were successful. 
Gen. H. H. Sibley defeated Alexander 
Ramsey for governor, and George L. Beck- 
er, William W. Phelps and James M. Cav- 
anaugli, all democrats, were elected to con- 
gress. The state legislature was also demo- 
cratic and it chose, at its first session, 
Henry M. Rice and James Shields as 
United States senators. These gentlemen 
had the distinction of being the only demo- 
cratic senators ever sent to Washington by 
Minnesota. 

A State at Last. 

During all this period of struggle for 
control o'f the new state, the territorial gov- 
ernment still administered the affairs of 
Minnesota. The state government would 
not be in force until congress formally re- 
cognized it. It was supposed that this re- 
cognition would occur early in the session 
of congress, and the newly elected senators 
and representatives went to Washington 
expecting to take part in the interesting 
legislation of that winter. But the attitude 
of congress had undergone a considerable 
change. Republicans who had been strenu- 
ous for the admission of Minnesota in the 
previous winter, when it was expected to 
line up as a republican state, had lost their 
enthusiasm when five democratic legislat- 
ors appeared in Washington seeking seats 
and votes in the congressional bodies. On 
the other hand Southern politicians who 
had vigorously protested against the ad- 



mission of another "free state" saw in the 
increase of the democratic vote in congress 
a possible aid to tlieir own cause. In ad- 
dition, Kansas was asking admission to the 
Union under a slavery constitution and 
some Southern congressmen were in favor 
of settling the Kansas subject before tak- 
ing up the case of Minnesota. The situa- 
tion was decidedly more mixed than it was 
when the enabling act was under consid- 
eration. During the long discussion of the 
measure the strange spectacle was present- 
ed of a northern republican — John Sher- 
man, of Ohio — opposing the admission of 
another free state, while a Southern demo- 




\MLL1.\M It. .M.^ItMI.VLL. 
Governor of Minnesota— Ii6ti-18T0. 

crat — Alexander Stephens, of Georgia^ 
argued skillfully for it. On May 11, 1858, 
the bill finally passed, and Minnesota at 
last became one of the states of the Union. 

The Railroad Bond Issue. 

Minnesota was a state at last, after long 
and tiresome waiting, but the new admin- 
istration doubtless wished that its respon- 
sibilities had been further delayed. For 
statehood was entered upon in the midst 
of the most distressing period in the his- 
tory of this region. The general financial 
panic of 1857 had affected Minnesota as 
such disturbances usually do affect new 
communities. Without well established in- 
dustries and settled values, the new terri- 
tnry had been unable to withstand the finan- 
cial reverses. Real estate values had dis- 



A HALF CENTURY OP MINNESOTA. 



27 



appeared, agriculture bad not been so far 
developed as to make the state self-sup- 
porting, and many of the people were re- 
duced to absolute distress. 

Early in 1857 the territorial legislature 
had turned over the entire railroad land 
grant of the territory to railroad companies, 
hoping that the immediate construction of 
railroads would assist materially in devel- 
oping the young state. Work was com- 
menced, but it soon became evident that 
tlte grantees had not the financial strength 
to carry out their agreements. But in- 
stead of declaring the grants forfeited the 
state legislature, early in 1858, acceded to 
a request for the assistance of these shaky 
railroad promoters by the loan of the com- 
ing state's credit. The famous $5,00.000 
loan bill was passed, and notwithstanding 
the opposition of such prominent citizens 
as ex-Governor Gorman and William R. 
Marshall, the measure was ratified soon 
after by popular vote. But the warnings 
of the wiser heads proved to have been 
well founded. Within a short time the 
young state found itself loaded with a debt 
of over $2,000,000 through the issue of these 
railroad bonds, while not a rail had been 
laid by any of the companies, and only 250 
miles of grading had been done. 

Interest upon the bonds was defaulted 
and the state was obliged to foreclose the 
properties. The situation seemed hopeless. 
In a spirit, possibly, of retaliation (for it 
was generally believed that the state had 
been grossly misused) the people, at the 
November election, adopted a cnnstitu- 
tional amendment virtuallj' repudiating the 
debt incurred in the bond issue. Impend- 
ing war made the future doubtful, and for 
the time being nothing could be done. And 
soon the war cloud broke and railroads 
were forgotten in the excitement of the 
hour. 

Minnesota m the War of the Rebellion. 

In the election of the fall of 1859 the 
republican party was successful, and Gov- 
ernor Ramsey was again selected to guide 
the fortunes of the young state through 
what proved to be the most exciting period 
in its history. The choice was a fortunate 
one. Others might have borne the respon- 
sibilities with honor, but certainly none 
better than the young, ardent and capable 
executive, whose thorough sympathy with 
the national administration, whose intense 
loyalty, whose fine executive ability and 
whose nearness to the hearts of the people 
of the state made him the ideal leader for 
such a crisis. On the fateful Saturday. 



April 13, 1861, when the news of the fall 
of Sumter awakened the North to the cer- 
tainty of war. Governor Ramsey was in 
Washington. He foresaw a call for troops, 
and early on Sunday morning called upon 
Secretary Cameron of the war department 
to offer a regiment from Minnesota. The 
tender was put into writing and conveyed 
at once to President Lincoln, Minnesota 
thus being the first state in the Union to 
offer her services for suppressing the re- 
bellion. The offer was accepted and Gov- 
ernor Ramsey on Monday telegraphed 
Lieut,-Gov. Ignatius Donnelly to issue a 
call for volunteers. That night Josias R. 
King, of St. Paul, was the first man to 
sign an agreement to enlist, and therefore 




STEPIIKN MII.I.KI;. 
Goveruor of Minne^^uta— 1864-1866. 

claimed the honor of being the first vol- 
unteer of the civil war. But not alone in 
these particulars did Minnesota take pre- 
eminence. The first "three years" regi- 
ment to reach the front came from Minne- 
sota, and that regiment — the famous First 
Minnesota — "sustained the greatest loss in 
the greatest battle of the war." The con- 
tribution of the state to the army was also 
something remarkable. Though a border 
state where the men could ill be spared for 
military duty, the state furnished 26.717 
volunteers: this from a population of 172.- 
023 by tlie census of i860. It was more 
than ten per cent of the population in 1865. 
Eleven regiments, two companies of sharp- 
shooters, several light cavalry and four ar- 



28 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



tillery organizations were recruited from 
the state. 

To tell the story of the participation of 
Minnesota men in the war in detail is, of 
course, impossible within the limits of this 
sketch. Even to mention all the brave 
leaders of the various organizations is out 
of the question. Of the seven colonels 
and lieutenant-colonels of the "tild First," 
three. Colonels Gorman, Dana and Sully, 
became brigadier generals, while the oth- 
ers. Colonels Morgan, Colville, Miller and 
Adams, were brevetted for the same rank. 
Indeed, Col. Sully won the brevet of major 
general. Col. Van Cleve, of the Second, 
was also brevetted major general and Col. 
C. C. Andrews, of the Third, and Col. John 




I.t'CIUS V. lUBBAIil). 
(Jovernor of Miimesiita— 1883-1S87. 

B. Sanborn, of the Fourth, won the same 
distinction. Col. L. F. Hubbard, of the 
Fifth, won his brevet as brigadier general 
in 1864. Col. John T. Averill, of the Sixth, 
was similarly honored, as was Col. Wm. 
R. Marshall of the Seventh, Col. M. T. 
Thomas of the Eighth and Col. Jas. H. 
Baker and Lieut.-Col. Jennison of the 
Tenth. Col. Miller of the Seventh was 
promoted to be brigadier general. 

The scenes attending the recruiting of 
the First regiment were most exciting. 
Lieut.-Gov. Donnelly issued the call for 
troops on Tuesday, April i6th. Business 
was at once relegated to a second place 
and the people of the state for a few days 
spent their time in holding patriotic meet- 



ings and discussing the coming war on the 
street corners. Amid great popular ex- 
citement company after company waS re- 
cruited and hastened to Fort Snelling. It 
was impossible to accept all of them under 
the call, and ten were selected to form the 
First regiment. They were mustered in 
under the three months' call, but the ad- 
ministration having made a further call for 
three years' troops, almost the entire regi- 
ment re-enlisted "for three years or during 
the war." Ex-Governor Gorman was ap- 
pointed colonel and Stephen Miller, after- 
wards to be governor of the state, was 
made lieutenant colonel. Towards the last 
of May the regiment marched into St. Paul 
and in the presence of a vast concourse 
of people assembled in front of the capitol. 
received from the hands of Mrs. Ramsey, 
the wife of the governor, a silk flag which 
it afterwards carried through the war. Fort 
Snelling was crowded with visitors during 
the few weeks that intervened before the 
regiment went to the front. 

Similar scenes were witnessed as the reg- 
iments, one by one. assembled in response 
to the additional calls issued by President 
Lincoln. The "old First" passed its term 
of service in the East. It was in scores 
of engagements. Among the more impor- 
tant were Bull Run, Ball's Blufif, the bat- 
tles of the Peninsula, Antietam, Fredericks- 
burg and Gettysburg — Gettysburg, where 
Its famous charge has become one of the 
glorious chapters in the records of mag- 
nificent courage and self-sacrifice. "There 
IS no more gallant deed recorded in his- 
tory," said Gen. Hancock, who ordered the 
charge. And well he might speak thus. A 
depleted regiment of 262 men charging two 
large brigades of the enemy, breaking their 
victorious advance and holding them in 
check until reserves had time to come, and 
losing in the deed 215 men out of the 262. 
This successful charge saved the position 
and possibly the day for the Union forces. 

The Second regiment was in the West — 
at Chickamauga, Atlanta and in the march 
to the sea. The Third. Fourth and Fifth 
were at Vicksburg, and the Fourth went 
with Sherman to the sea; the Seventh. 
Ninth and Tenth were at Nashville. These 
were only some of the most conspicuous 
battles. Most of the regiments served 
through long and wearisome campaigns 
and participated with honor in many en- 
gagements. 

However, many of the Minnesota sol- 
diers never saw Southern service; to them 
fell a different kind of campaigning, though 
their service was not less arduous or im- 
portant. 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA 



•2!1 



The Indian War of 1862-64. 

Minnesota had already sent half of her 
volunteers to the South and was hasten- 
ing the recruiting of more regiments for 
the suppression of the rebellion, when with 
the suddenness of the lightning's flash 
there fell upon the state a calamity which 
for the time turned aside every thought of 
the nation's conflict. On the i8th of Au- 
gust, 1862, the Sioux Indians living upon 
the reservations along the upper Minnesota 
river rose without warning and massacred 
the settlers all along the frontier. Within 
thirty-six hours about 1,000 people had 



arms, ammunition and rations for equip- 
ping troops. It was the greatest Indiam 
massacre in the history of the country and 
was executed with the fiendish cruelty and 
suddenness characteristic of the savages. 
These circumstances made the situation 
appalling. Fleeing settlers poured into the 
larger villages on the frontier and hurried 
preparations were made at these places for 
defense and for the relief of outlying 
points. But of the latter there were very 
lew left with living inhabitants. The peo- 
ple at the upper and lower Indian agencies 
on the Minnesota river had been slain at 








-mi »* «*»» 









W^ ■ ^ ..., 




A RELIC OK THE INDIAN MASSACRE OF 1863. 

The old "Lctwer -\gency'' building still standing near Redwood Falls. The roof anil interior have been 

changed; the walls are the same as wlien every inhabitant was murdered on August 18th. 1863. 



been murdered. The Sioux engaged in the 
massacre could muster upwards of i.ooo 
effective warriors, and the possibilities of 
re-inforcement from the western bands of 
Sioux were almost illimitable. In addi- 
tion there was imminent danger of the in- 
fection of. the Winnebagoes and Chippewas 
with the spirit of rebellion and a general 
uprising which would have swept the state 
clear of settlers to the Mississippi river. 
Indeed, this was found afterwards to have 
been the program of Little Crow, the chief 
commanding the Sioux. At the moment 
of the uprising the state had sent 5,000 of 
her best men, including most of the trained 
militia, to the South and was quite without 



the first movement of the Indians. Then 
from Meeker county on the north, sweep- 
ing close to Glencoe, St. Peter, Mankato, 
and on south to Spirit Lake on the Iowa 
line, the savages had murdered every white 
person except about 150 young women and 
children who were carried into a most hor- 
rible captivity. Fort Ridgley and New 
Ulm were the only places where resistance 
had been eflfective, and both these places 
were sorely beset. 

A few troops in the vicinity were hur- 
ried to the relief of Fort Ridgley, and 
Judge Charles E. Flaudreau, who was then 
living at St. Peter, hastily organized a 
company of 116 men and marched on Au- 



30 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



gust 19th to New Ulm, arriving there just 
in time to assist in beating off a renewed 
attack. Within a few days the force was 
swelled by other arrivals of volunteers, and 
on Saturday. August 23rd, when the In- 
dians again attacked the place. Colonel 
Flandreau had about 300 men, though very 
poorly equipped. The battle of New Ulm 
was one of the most bitterly contested 
known in Indian warfare. The attacking 
force outnumbered the defenders two to 
one and were infinitely better armed. Af- 
ter burning the town and driving the 
whites into a stockade, the Indians were 
forced to retire. On Monday the ruins of 
the town were abandoned and the inliabi- 
lants and wearied volunteers made good 
their retreat to Mankato. 



men. raw and undisciplined recruits, citi- 
zen volunteers and what not. They were 
ill armed, but undaunted. But the evac- 
uation of New Ulm and the check which 
the Indians had received gave time for 
preparation, and within a few days the lit- 
tle army was better armed and marched 
to Fort Ridgley. In the meantime the In- 
dians had disappeared from the vicinity 
and a detachment of 150 men sent out to 
reconnoitre felt so much security that it 
was surprised at Bird.- Coulie and almost 
annihilated during a three days' fight be- 
fore reinforcements arrived. This almost 
massacre, however, again saved the lower 
valley. Even after their repulses at Fort 
Ridgley and New Ulm. the Indians were 
readv to invade the lower river, and would 




Kiilit lillx. 
hiiim iin old dr.-iwiiijj in possession of 

Meanwhile Fort Ridgley liad been con- 
tinuously besieged, but without success. 
These desperate stands made by the de- 
fenders of New Ulm and Fort Ridgley un- 
doubtedly saved the lower Minnesota val- 
ley. Had the Indians been successful, they 
would without question have ravaged the 
state to the vicinity of Fort Snelling. 

Governor Ramsey received word of the 
uprising on August 19th, and at once 
placed Gen. H. H. Sibley in command of 
a movement to check and punish the In- 
dians. At the time the Sixth Minnesota 
regiment was being mustered in at Fort 
Snelling and SibJey went forward ne.xt day 
with four companies of this regiment. Oth- 
er companies were hurried after him, and 
on Sunday, the 24th. he had assembled at 
St. Peter a motley force of about 1.400 



Ki.KV. 

tht' Miiiiiosnia Ilieti>ri:il Snciety. 

undoubtedly have done so had their at- 
tention not been taken up with the Birch 
Coulie aflfair. They could easily have evad- 
ed the slight defensive operations possible 
from Mankato and St. Peter, and Sibley 
could not have overtaken them before they 
had swept the valley. While these events 
were transpiring in the Minnesota valley, 
a command was organized in the region 
about Glencoe under Col. John H. Stev- 
ens and such defense was made' that the 
Indians were prevented from ravaging 
that part of the country beyond the limits 
of their first raid. South of the Minnesota 
Col. Flandreau was put in command of the 
defense to the Iowa line. 

With the hope of rescuing the prisoners 
alive. Gen. Sibley, who well understood the 
Indian character, made no further offensive 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



?,1 



movements against the Indian position, 
which had been taken up at the upper 
agency, but opened communication with 
Little Crow. Their correspondence proved 
unsatisfactory and Sibley finally moved 
west and on September 23rd fought the 
battle of Wood Lake, where the Indians 
were defeated. Two days later the Indian 
camp was surrounded and four hundred 
warriors taken prisoner, while the white 
captives were at the same time released. 
Little Crow and some of his leading men 
escaped. 

Gen. Sibley organized a military com- 
mission which tried 425 Indians, of whom 
J2I were found guilty and 303 were sen- 
tenced to death. The sentence was sub- 
sequently commuted by President Lincoln, 



tinually waging war against him. In 1862 
the Indians had not been promptly paid 
their annuities and knew that the state was 
ill prepared to defend its settlers. 

The government decided that further 
punisliment of the Indians was necessary, 
and during 1863 and 1864 Generals Sibley 
and Sully carried on campaigns through 
Dakota and Montana which completely 
broke the spirit of the Indians for the time 
being. 

The Rebound from Depression. 

With the close of the civil war Minne- 
sota entered upon a new period of pros- 
perity. Even the backset which the state 
received through the Sioux massacre was 
forgotten. Immigration was constant and 




INDIAN EXKlTTION .\T M.\NKAT<I IN 18BS. 
From a dr.'iwing in the rooms of th*' Minnesota Historical Society. 



except in the case of 38 of the prisoners, 
who were hanged on one scaffold at Man- 
kato on December 26th, 1862 — probably the 
most remarkable execution in the country's 
history. The remaining prisoners were 
confined in prison in Iowa for a long time. 
Some of them died in this captivity and 
the rest were finally removed to the re- 
mote frontier and liberated. For his part 
in the campaign Sibley received a brigadier 
general's commission. 

The causes of the Indian uprising of 1862 
have been much discussed and never sat- 
isfactorily settled, beyond the generaliza- 
tion that the Indian hates the white man 
and is only restrained by policy from con- 



large. Many soldiers who had fought in 
the Union army came to the Northwest to 
take up government land and make homes 
on the prairies. During the war the fran- 
chises granted to railroad companies in 
1857 and which had fallen in through de- 
fault, were re-let to new companies and 
building was taken up slowly. In 1862 the 
ten miles between St. Paul and St. An- 
thony had been spanned by the rails, and 
by 1865 a line had been opened to Fari- 
bault. As soon as the war ended railroad 
building went on with great rapidity. Com- 
munication with the East via LaCrosse 
was opened in 1867. while the Minnesota 
& Pacific reached the Red river valley only 



32 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



a little later. Under these conditions, so 
favorable for development, it is not won- 
derful that the census of 1870 showed a 
gain of 180,000 in population and a larger 
percentage of increase than has occurred in 
any five year period since. 

How the War Developed Men. 

The stress of the times, both on the 
battlefield and in the management of the 
affairs of state, brought to the front the 
best that Minnesota had to offer. These 
were times that developed men. During 
the war the foremost man in Minnesota 
was undoubtedly Governor Ramsey. His 
prompt action in offering troops to the 
government and his readiness upon the 
breaking out of the Indian war have al- 
ready been mentioned On .September g, 



the strength of character and readiness, 
endurance and patience which later served 
them well in political life. 

The exigencies of war time were equally 
potent in bringing forward strong men 
among those whose duties kept them at 
home or in the legislative bodies. One of 
the most honored of Minnesota's public 
men commenced his service to the state 
and nation at this time. This was William 
Windom, of Winona. He represented the 
state in the national house of representa- 
tives from 1859 to 1869, when he was ap- 
pointed to the senate. In 1871 he was elect- 
ed senator and again in 1877. In 1880 his 
name was before the republican national 
convention as Minnesota's candidate for 
the presidential nomination. He was made 
secretary of the treasurv under Garfield 




Morri?, Minn., in 18'<1. 



1862, he called an extra session of the state 
legislature to take measures for the sup- 
pression of the uprising. In the fall of 
1861 he was re-elected, but during the 
winter of 1863 was chosen to represent the 
state in the United States senate, where he 
served with distinction during twelve years. 
In 1879 he was appointed secretary of war 
by President Hayes and he afterwards 
served four years on the Utah commission. 
No less than four of the later governors 
of Minnesota were commissioned officers 
of her regiments during the war. Three 
Others served in various capacities either in 
Minnesota or Wisconsin regiments, while 
many other of the public men of the state 
acquired in the stern school of the army 



and again by President Harrison, and it 
was during his conspicuously able conduct 
of this department that his sudden death 
occurred in 1891. As a financier and pub- 
licist of world-wide reputation, and as a 
man of the highest character. Minnesota 
has reason to be proud of him. 

Three Great Inventions. 

It must not be inferred from the impor- 
tant place which is given to railroads in 
all accounts of the development of Min- 
nesota, that they were alone responsible 
for the wonderful advances made by the 
young state. Without the railroads prog- 
ress would indeed have been slow; but 
with them and without the energy of the 



A HALF CENTURY OP MINNESOTA. 



33 



early business men the development of 
Minnesota would have been almost equally 
delayed. Three inventions or improve- 
ments were made during the decade of 




WILLI.^M WINDOM. 

IJnileti States Senator and Secretaiy of the Treasun. 

1870-80 which were quickly adopted by the 
people of Minnesota and which played a 
most important part in the building up of 
the state. These were the middlings puri- 
fier, the roller flour mill and the self- 
binding harvester. The first two brought 
such improvements into the manufacture 
of flour that the product of Northwestern 
spring wheat mills took an acknowledged 
lead in the world's markets; the last made 
it possible to harvest that spring wheat at 
a greatly reduced cost, and, with the im- 
proved processes of milling, made it an 
active competitor with all other breadstuflfs 
the world over. The fame of Minnesota 
wheat and ffour went abroad over the land 
and farmers fiocked to the state to engage 
in raising "No. I hard." 

The foundation of great manufacturing 
and agricultural industries was laid and the 
basis for enormous increase in legitimate 
immigration was established. 

The Red River Vallev Opened. 

Co-incident with the improvements 
which made spring wheat a profitable crop 
came the extension of the railroads into 
the Red river valley. It was found that the 
soil of this region was peculiarly adapted 
to the production of wheat. The subse- 



quent development of wealth has possibly 
never been equaled in an agricultural dis- 
trict. In 1870 the territory comprised in 
the six counties of Wilkin, Clay, Norman, 
Polk, Marshall and Kittson, which are 
Minnesota's share of the Red river valley, 
had a population of 451 people. In 1880 
this had increased to 21,123 and '" 1890 to 
71,190. In 1880 this district produced l,- 
692,183 bushels of wheat; in 1890 about 
8,000.000 bushels. The output of the Min- 
neapolis flour mills in 1870 was insignifi- 
cant; in i88o it had reached over 2,000,000 
barrels; in 1890, 7,000,000 barrels, and in 
1898 over 14,000,000 barrels. 

Two Great Disasters. 

While the influences just mentioned were 
working \o develop two of the greatest in- 
dustries of the state, there occurred dur- 
ing this same decade of 1870-80 two such 
strange and unprecedented disasters to 
these industries that they deserve a place 
among the important happenings of the 
state's history. The "grasshopper plague," 
as it was called, extended over the years 
from 1873 to 1878 and for a time threatened 
to paralyze the agricultural interests of the 
state. The pests — they were in reality a 




CHARLES .\. PILLSBIRY. 

Fov many years the leading Flour Miller of the 
World. 

species of locust — appeared in 1873, and 
in 1875 had increased to such an extent 
as to destroy the entire crops through a 
large part of the state. After losing sev- 



34 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



eral crops in succession, the farmers were 
not only discouraged, but in many in- 
stances in absolute destitution. State aid 
was granted and means for the destruction 
of the insects finally devised. Recovery 
from these losses was, in some districts, 
very slow. 

In fact, it was not yet complete when 
the food producing industry was assailed 
at the other end. On the evening 6f May 
2, 1878, the Washburn A flour mill in Min- 
neapolis^ — the largest mill in the world at 
that time — exploded with terrific force. 
The explosion was instantly followed by 
that of two adjoining mills, while build- 
ings of all kinds in that part of the city 
were wrecked by the conciisiioii. Tlie 



by the attempted robbery, in 1876, of a 
bank in Northtield, the murder ot tiie cash- 
ier and the subsequent pursuit and capture 
of the outlaws. Two of the outlaws were 
shot in the repulse of their band in the 
public square at Northfield and another 
was killed while the gang was surrounded 
in a swamp by a pursuing posse. The oth- 
ers have since been prisoners in the Min- 
nesota penitentiary. The band hailed from 
Missouri and the people of Minnesota were 
most unwilling to liave their state brand- 
ed with the reputation which had attached 
to the country of the James family. Prob- 
ably no event in its history so stirred Min- 
nesota to the maintenance of a high stand- 
,Trd of public firder 




MuuKllEA 
Ki-om ;i pti()ti>i,'rHpli owned l)y tht 

ruined mills and all others on the west side 
of the river immediately took tire and were 
completely consumed. The loss of eighteen 
lives and the millions invested was not the 
least of the evils of this catastrophe — from 
a commercial standpoint — for the mystery 
of the explosion made it seem, at first, that 
safety in milling was an impossibility. But 
the mysteries of dust explosion were soon 
better understood and the Minneapolis 
mills were rebuilt on a larger scale and 
with appliances which assured their future 
safety from similar accident. 

The Northfield Tragedy. 

A most profound impression was made 
upon the minds of the people of the state 



I) IN i»;i. 

' Minnegotii Historical Soi-iety, 

Repudiation Repudiated. 

There was a feeling abrcirid that Minne- 
sota was a noble heritage and that her 
good name should be as fair as her grand 
forests, blue lakes and broad prairies. The 
public conscience had borne without awak- 
ening the stigma of repudiation since the 
beginnings of statehood, but as the time 
went on it was realized that the unpaid 
bonds, whatever the circumstances attend- 
ing their issue, must remain a blot on the 
record of the state, unless just means were 
taken to provide for their payment or hon- 
orable adjustment. Headed by Governor 
John S. Pillsbury. who repeatedly urged 
legislative action, the movement at last 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



35 



took such prominence that the issue could 
be no longer ignored and an extra session 
of the legislature in October. 1881, passed 
an act for the issue of adjustment bonds, 
which was immediately ratified by the peo- 
ple. The settlement was satisfactory to 
the bondholders. 

A Lesson Written in Fire, 

During the early eighties three serious 
tires in as many of the public buildings of 
the state called attention to the needs of 
more substantial architecture if the the in- 
stitutions of Minnesota were to maintain 
a high position. Previous to 1866 the in- 
sane wards of the state were cared for by 
arrangement with the Iowa insane asylutn. 




.JOHN S. PILLSHUKV. 
Go\ernor of Minnesota — 1876 18T2. 

Legislative action in that year established 
the first hospital for the insane at St. Pe- 
ter, and ten years later an extensive build- 
ing had been completed. The north wing 
of this building burned on the night of 
November 15, 1880, causing the direct loss 
of 24 lives. Four months later the old 
state capitol at St. Paul was destroyed by 
fire, entailing the loss of valuable docu- 
ments and records. In 1884 a portion of 
the buildings of the state penitentiary at 
Stillwater were burned. These lessons, 
though not immediately effective, have led 
to a gradual improvement in the construc- 
tion of the buildings of the various state 
institutions. 



A Chapter of Calamities. 

In reviewing the history of Minnesota it 
is the almost inevitable conclusion that the 
state has been peculiarly unfortunate in 
great catastrophes. In addition to the In- 
dian massacres there have been from time 
to time disasters wrought by the elements 
which have in the aggregate caused almost 
equal loss of life. During the winter of 1873 
a period of unusually intense cold found 
many of the newly establish settlers on the 
prairies unprepared and fully seventy per- 
sons lost their lives. A tornado, in 1883, 
destroyed a large portion of Rochester and 
caused some thirty-five fatalities. Seventy 
lives were sacrificed in 'he tornauo which 
swept over St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids in 
April, 1886, and over fifty were lost in a 
similar storm which scourged five counties 
in southern Minnesota five years later. A 
storm on Lake Pepin in the summer of 
1890 sank an excursion steam and 100 per- 
sons were drowned. But these terrible 
ev.ents were dwarfed by the horrors of the 
forest fires of 1894. The awful details of 
the fire which devastated four hundred 
square miles of territory, destroying 
Hinckley, Sandstone and other villages, 
are still fresh in the recollection of the 
people of Minnesota. In this cyclone of 
tire 417 people lost their lives, while more 
than 2,000 were made utterly destitute by 
the destruction of their homes. Property to 
the value of at least $1,000,000 was destroy- 
ed. These tragedies have served to show 
the warmth of sympathy existing among the 
people of Minnesota, underneath the busy 
material lives which most of them have 
led; in the relief measures which have al- 
ways been prompt and generous, they have 
been brought into closer relations and per- 
haps to a nearer approach to the ideal of 
universal brotherhood. 

Some Great Celebrations. 

In pleasant contrast to the darker epi- 
sodes in the history of the state are the 
incidents which show the normal tendency 
of the people to merry-making and rejoic- 
ing. We are wont to think of the people 
of Minnesota as undemonstrative, but the 
records show that they have always had a 
vivid appreciation of the dramatic and have 
appeared to keenly enjoy public demon- 
strations and jollifications. From the first 
Fourth of July celebration in 1849 the in- 
fant St. Paul, when 500 people — nearly all 
the inhabitants of the place — joined in the 
procession, to the demonstrations incident 
to the return of the Minnesota volunteers 



36 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



from the Philippines, half a century later, 
when nearly half a million people greeted 
the soldiers and chief executive on the 
streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul — there 
have been from time to time many inter- 
esting occasions of public rejoicing. 

One of the most unique afifairs of this 
character was the excursion to St. Paul 
and St. Anthony on the occasion of the 
opening of the Chicago & Rock Island 
railroad to the Mississippi river in 1854. 
About 1,000 prominent people were in the 
party, including ex-President Fillmore, 
Edward Bates, the senior and junior 
Blairs, George Bancroft, the historian, El- 
bridge Gerry, Charles A. Dana, Samuel 
Bowles, Samuel J. Tilden. and a great 




HOKACE AfSTIN. 
Governor of Miunesota — 1S70-18T4. 

many others then or since prominent in 
politics, the pulpit, the bar or the news- 
paper sanctum. Such excursions are un- 
known nowadays, when the palace car con- 
fines the excursionists in dusty compart- 
ments. Five steamboats brought the vis- 
itors from Rock Island to St. Paul. From 
time to time, as the steamers ascended the 
river, they were lashed together in pairs 
for the convenience of the guests, and mu- 
sic and dancing on board alternated with 
hospitable receptions at every landing. At 
St. Paul a banquet and ball in the capitol 
gave the Eastern visitors an understanding 
of Western hospitality. Such conveyances 
as could be had carried the excursionists 



to St. Anthony and the Falls of Minne- 
haha. 

Perhaps the first pageant ever seen in 
the state was that which appeared on the 
streets of St. Paul in 1858 in celebration 
of the laying of the first Atlantic cable. 
For a town of less than 10,000 people lo- 
cated far inland and without telegraphic 
communication, this celebration of an in- 
ternational event was quite remarkable. In 
the parade all the prominent people partici- 
pated. A long series of floats carried 
groups representing in tableaux scenes of 
the revolution and others of a symbolical 
nature. One car carried thirty-two young 
women representing the states of the 
union, the part of Minnesota, the newest 
in the group, being taken by a little girl 
of five. The procession which included 
many other appropriate features, conclud- 
ed with the inevitable speechmaking. 

There were great demonstrations in cel- 
ebration of the victories which brought the 
rebellion to a close, but they were perhaps 
outdone by the later jubilees over more 
peaceful triumphs. Upon the completion 
and formal opening of the Northern Pa- 
cific railroad, in 1883, the cities of St. Paul 
and Minneapolis were crowded with the 
people of the state who gathered to wit- 
ness the pageants which celebrated this 
commercial advance and did honor to 
Henry Villard. Eight years later the mag- 
nificent harvest of 1891 was the occasion 
of a jubilee in Minneapolis, the like of 
which has never been seen in the West. 
This "harvest festival" attracted national 
attention. The winter carnivals in St. Paul 
and the later carnivals in both cities in con- 
nection with the annu?l state fair have 
given evidence of the presence of a genu- 
ine carnival spirit even if tinged with a 
touch of commercialism. 

Minnesota at the Worlds Fair. 

The assistance of Minnesota m the na- 
tional celebration of the four hundredth 
anniversary of the discovery of America 
was noteworthy. Under the direction of a 
special commission, an attractive state 
building was erected on the fair grounds 
at Chicago and the state made exhibits in 
many of the departments of the fair. The 
displays of cereals and dairy products, the 
mining and forestry exhibits, were excep- 
tionally fine. Out of about 300 displays 
of cereals Minnesota took over 200 awards, 
while 66 were granted for flour. The min- 
ing displays received 40 awards, the cattle 
48, horses 50 and poultry 21. Minnesota 
Day was celebrated on October 13th, the 



A HALF CENTURY OP MINNESOTA. 



37 



thirty-sixth anniversary of the adoption of 
the constitution. 



The Panic of 1893. 



The world's lair j-ear brought with it 
the commercial depression throughout the 
country, and which, in the case of Minne- 
sota, proved to be the most serious panic 
since the organization of the state, but in 
proportion to the population and commer- 
cial interests involved, it was not as serious 
as the panic of 1857. Its effects were felt 
principally in the larger cities where many 
financial institutions, especially those re- 
lying upon real estate values for their foun- 
dations, were forced to bankruptcy. The 



cost of about $275,000. Its inadequacy to 
the needs of the state became apparent 
within a few years, and in 1893 the legis- 
lature created a capitol commission 
charged with the erection of a more per- 
manent building, to cost $2,000,000. The 
cornerstone of the new capitol was laid on 
July 27th, 1898, by the venerable Governor 
Ramsey. The building is of white Geor- 
gia marble, and is under contract for com- 
pletion by July ist, 1900. It will be one of 
the handsomest, though by no means the 
most costly of state capitols. 

Minnesota m the Spanish War of 1898. 

The response of the state to the call for 




MINNESOTA HI 11. DIM. AT IllK WOlil.llS FAIH "I 1-^ 



conditions brought to light the operations 
of careless and even criminal financiers; 
but Minnesota suffered no more from such 
revelations than other and older states. In 
the rural communities of the state the de- 
pression was much less marked than in 
the cities. Some districts experienced 
practically no inconvenience from the gen- 
eral stringency. 

Minnesota's New Capitol. 

After the destruction of the original cap- 
itol building in 1881, the legislature held 
two sessions in the St. Paul market house 
and in 188.3 occupied the second capitol, 
which had been rushed to completion at a 



volunteers for the war with Spain in 1898 
was as prompt as in 1861 when Lincoln 
asked for soldiers to put down the rebel- 
lion. Minnesota was again first to offer 
military aid. She furnished three regi- 
ments — the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Four- 
teenth — immediately after the call, and they 
were mustered in on May 7th and 8th. The 
Fifteenth followed under the second call 
on July i8th. In all 5.313 volunteers were 
furnished the national government. Only 
the Thirteenth regiment actually partici- 
pated in hostilities. Its creditable service 
in the Philippine islands is a matter fa- 
miliar to evervone in the state. 



38 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



The Pillager Indian Uprising. 

In 1898 Minnesota again experienced the 
sensations of an Indian uprising, but for- 
tunately on a scale which relieved the af- 
fair of the terrors of the pioneer days. The 
attempt of a deputy United States marshal 
to arrest two Indians on the Leech Lake 
reservation led to the rising of the Pillager 
band against the authority of the govern- 
ment. A detachment of troops sent from 
Fort Snelling attempted to enforce United 
States authority, and all but one or two 
of the miscreants were finally arrested, but 
not until an engagement had taken place 
at Sugar Point where the command lost 
eight killed and as many wounded. No 




CLJSIl.MAN K. DAV1^^. 

Governor of Minnesota, 1ST4 ISTti. and United 

States Senator. 

Indians were killed. For a time the people 
settled near Leech Lake were fearful of a 
general uprising, and troops were stationed 
for several days at all important points. 

An Agricultural Influence. 

Second only in influence in the farming 
life of the state to the improvements in 
agricultural and milling machinery of the 
seventies was the decided movement to- 
ward dairying in the last decade. Twenty 
years ago Minnesota was likely to become 
known as a "one crop state." There was 
an extraordinary rush into wheat raising, 
stimulated by the high price of the cereal, 
the ease with which it could be raised by 



men ignorant of general farming and a 
certain amount of skepticism regarding the 
possibilities of the climate for many kinds 
of crops. Before long it became evident 
to the more thoughtful that diversification 
must come or the farms of the state would 
be ruined. Even a soil which received the 
award at the world's fair for being extra- 
ordinarily rich in plant food would sooner 
or later be exhausted if only wheat were 
raised. Low prices of wheat in some years 
and occasional crop failures helped on the 
coming change. In the early times of the 
state the excellence of Minnesota grasses 
as butter-making food had been estab- 
lished, but it was not until the necessity 
of diversification became very evident that 
there was any large movement toward 
dairying. The introduction of the co-op- 
erative creamery idea at an opportune time 
helped on the movement until now there 
are about 700 creameries and 100 cheese 
factories in the state, .^bout two-thirds of 
these institutions are co-operative. Iri 1898 
about 30 per cent of the farmers in the 
state were patrons of creameries. At the 
same time there has grown up a general 
diversificution of grain crops, an increased 
attention to fruit raising and considerable 
interest in stock breeding and fattening. 
Recently the exploitation of the sugar beet 
as a Minnesota crop has led to the intro- 
duction of this profitable root as a Minne- ' 
sola staple. 

This diversification of farm crops and 

ndustries has had a notable effect upon 
tlie financial condition of Minnesota 
larmers. and must in time work an 

qual change in their social condition. Ex- 
' lusive wheat raising means for the farmer 
' 'verwork at the time of seeding and har- 
\est and comparative idleness at other pe- 
riods, while it also tends. to make him more 
or less of a speculator. In the same way 
the change from home dairying to the 
creamery has lightened the duties of the 
farm wife, and, with the incidentally in- 
creased income, made possible a higher 
standard of living. 

Some Events Political. 

Minnesota is peculiar among the states 
in that for nearly forty years, from i860 to 
1899, its government remained in the con- 
trol of one political party. Vermont is the 
only other state in the Union which has 
passed through a similar experience. Gen- 
eral H. H, Sibley, elected as a democrat 
in 1858. was succeded by a republican. 
Governor Ramsey, in i860, and then fol- 
lowed in long succession Governors Henrj'^ 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA 



39 



A. Swift, 1863-4; Stephen Miller, 1864-66; 
William R. Marshall, 1866-70; Horace Aus- 
tin, 1870-74; Cushman K. Davis, 1874-76; 
John S. Pillsbury, 1876-82; Lucius F. Hub- 
bard, 1882-87; A. R. McGill. 1887-89; Wil- 
liam R. Merriani, 1889-93; Knute Nelson, 
1893-95; and David M. Clough, 1895-99. 
In l8g8 John Lind, the candidate of the 
democratic and populist parties, was elect- 
ed governor, breaking the long line of re- 
publican successes. But on national issues 
the state has always been republican, every 
republican president from Lincoln to Mc- 
Kinley having received a plurality. And 
with the exception of Senators Shields and 
Rice, chosen in 1857, all of the state's rep- 
resentatives in the upper house of congress 




A. R. Mc(ULL. 

Governor of Minnesota— 1887-lf8ll. 

have been republicans. All have served 
the state with credit, while Senators Ram- 
sey, Windom and Davis have been called 
to even higher national honors and duties. 
Some of the more important legislative 
enactments of the state have already been 
mentioned. During Gov. Davis' adminis- 
tration, and at his suggestion, the foun- 
dations were laid for state supervision of 
railroads. The creation of the railroad 
commission is justly regarded as one of 
the most important pieces of legislation 
accomplished in Minnesota. During Gov. 
McGill's administration the system was 
perfected. At the same session of the leg- 
islature the high license system was adopt- 
ed. Various acts from time to time fixed 



as a part of the state financiering the cus- 
tom of raising a large revenue from taxes 
upon the gross earnings of railroads. The 
Australian system of voting and laws ef- 
fecting reforms in primary elections have 
been important measures looking to better 
government. Early in the life of the state 
legislation was adopted establishing the ed- 
ucational and charitable institutions, and 
supplementary acts have added to the orig- 
inal establishments and created numerous 
new departments. 

Development of a School System. 

Until Minnesota became a state the 
school systems, previously referred to as 
founded by the territorial legislature, made 
slow progress. Originally it consisted only 
of the common schools, conducted much 
as the local directors considered best, and 
the university, which remained in an em- 
bryotic condition until after the war. Early 
in statehood a revised school law code was 
adopted and the machinery of the common 
school system, much as it exists today, 
was put in motion. The superintendent of 
public instruction was at first chancellor 
of the university. Teachers' institutes were 
provided for by the legislature of 1867-9. 
High schools first came in on the motion 
of city school boards; afterwards they were 
brought under the supervision of a state 
high school board and grafted into the 
system which now makes it possible for 
the Minnesota boy or girl to begin with 
the elementary branches and pass from one 
school to another through a high school 
and university course. In the common 
schools there are now about 330,000 pupils. 
The state revenue for schools from the 
permanent fund and taxation is now over 
$1,000,000 annually. 

A norma! school system was planned by 
the legislature of 1858, and after some de- 
lays the Winona school was opened in 
i860. Its bifilding was not completed until 
1870. The Mankato normal was opened 
in 1868, and that of St. Cloud in the fol- 
lowing year. In 1888 the Moorhead school 
was added to the list. These schools Jiad 
last year an enrollment of 1,825 students. 
In addition the state maintains a summer 
school at the state university and local 
summer schools which are held in more 
than fifty counties. 

In the territorial division of this sketch 
the early history of the University of Min- 
nesota was outlined. In i860 the institu- 
tion was entirely reorganized by legislative 
enactment. The new board of regents, 
then organized, found itself with an incom- 



40 



A HALF CENTURV OF MINNESOTA. 



pleted building and a burden of debt. It 
was not until 1867 that the debts were ex- 
tinguished and an appropriation made it 
possible to commence instruction in a pre- 
paratory department. In the following 
year the agricultural college created in 
1862, but never actually established, was 
incorporated with the university proper, 
and in 1869 the work of the institution as 
a college was commenced with Dr. W. W. 
Folwell as president. Upon President Fol- 
well devolved the labor of organization 
and the solution of all the difficult prob- 
lems of a new institution. The equipment 
was meagre; not until 1875 was it possible 
even to enlarge the original building. With 
1881 came provisions for more liberal 
building, and 1883 saw the beginnings of 
the agricultural department work in the 
farm at St. Anthony Park. 



to a dozen or more on the campus, and 
almost as many on the agricultural farm. 
In these buildings are accommodated 
seven departments, a college of science, lit- 
erature and arts, a school of mines, a col- 
lege of mechanic arts, a college of agri- 
culture, a college of law, a department of 
medicine and a graduate department. Sev- 
eral of these departments are so subdivided 
as to form virtually other colleges or 
schools. The university has an enrollment 
of about 3,000 students, a strong faculty 
and a standard of work which gives its 
students recognition on equal terms in the 
best universities in the country. The ag- 
ricultural department is recognized as lead- 
ing all others in the United States. The 
university has an annual financial support 
of about $300,000, and in addition to its 
lands, owns buildings wortti over a million 




THE I.TBRARY-lNnEUSITY OF .MI.NNKSOTA, 



In 1884 the time appeared to have come 
when Dr. Folwell might indulge a prefer- 
ence for work as an instructor, and he re- 
tired from the presidency to be succeeded 
by Dr. Cyrus Northrop, who has contin- 
ued to administer the affairs of the insti- 
tution to the present time. Thus the Min- 
nesota university has had, in its thirty 
years of actual college work, but two pres- 
idents, and each has served for one-half the 
period. President Northrop's conduct of 
the university has been most successful. 
The rapid growth of the state during the 
eighties made great demands upon the ed- 
ucational institutions, and the legislature, 
realizing the importance of the university, 
made liberal appropriations. From three 
small buildings the imiversity has grown 



dollars. 

Through the organization of its univer- 
sity, high schools and grammar and dis- 
trict schools in one complete and con- 
nected system, Minnesota became the first 
state to offer to its young people a free 
liberal education from the primary grades 
to post graduate university work. 

Other State Institutions. 

Closely allied with its public educational 
system has been Minnesota's public pro- 
vision for instruction of defectives, its cor- 
rectional work and its treatment of the in- 
sane. From the founding of the peniten- 
tiary in territorial days, the establishment 
of the deaf, dumb and blind institute at 
Faribault in 1868, and the creation of the 



42 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



St. Peter hospital for the insane in 1866, 
the institutional system has gradually de- 
veloped until it is reasonably complete. 
The three hospitals for the insane at St. 




\V1LLI.\M K. iIKl;UI.\M, 
Governor of Minnesota— 1889-1S93 

Peter. Rochester and Fergus Falls had 
3.357 inmates at the beginning of the cur- 
rent year; the state has about $2,500,000 
invested in these institutions. At Faribault 
are grouped in the institute for defectives 
the three schools — for the deaf, blind and 
feeble-minded. The state public school at 
Owatonna cares for neglected or homeless 
children and the state training school at 
Red Wing takes in hand boys and girls 
who are incorrigible, but whose misde- 
meanors are not such as to warrant incar- 
ceration in one of the common prisons. 
The reformatory at St. Cloud was estab- 
lished by the legislature of 1887, with the 
same purpose but going one grade deeper; 
it is used for the imprisonment and refor- 
mation if possible of youthful criminals. 
The most significant and important legis- 
lation in connection with these institutions 
was the creation in 1883 of the state board 
of charities and corrections, charged with 
a general oversight of the management of 
the institutions, but without executive 
powers. New methods may be recom- 
mended and no buildings may be erected 
without the approval of plans by the board. 
Its work has tended to greatly unify the 
system, improve methods and prevent 
abuses. 



Growth of the Churches. 

Since the first Presbyterian church was 
organized in 1834 in a rude apartment at 
Fort Snelling, and since Father Galtier 
built the chapel of St. Paul, the religious 
life of Minnesota has made progress in 
every way commensurate with the material 
development of the state. To tell the story 
in detail would require many pages; it 
would be an account of indomitable effort 
midst greatest discouragements in pioneer 
days, of notable triumphs as the years 
went on, and a gradual development of 
such strength and force as has been rarely 
seen in a half century of spiritual endeavor. 
Only a few incidents of this fifty years' 
work may be mentioned. The first resi- 
dent clergyman in charge of a church in 
St. Paul was Father Ravoux of the Roman 
Catholic church. In 1849 Rev. E. D. Neill 
commenced preaching and Rev. J. P. Par- 
sons of the Baptist denomination and Rev. 
Chauncey Hobart.a Methodist, commenced 
their labors later in the same year. Rev. 
J. C. Whitney, a Presbyterian clergyman, 
began pastoral work in Stillwater in 1849. 
He was followed soon after by a Baptist. 
Rev. W. C. Brown. The first Methodist 
church at St. Anthony was organized by 




KNLTE NELSON. 
».io\ernor of Minnesota, 1893-1895, and T. S. Senator. 

Rev. Matthew Sorin in 1849; a Presbyter- 
ian and an Episcopal church were formed 
in 1850. and a Congregational church in 
the following year. During October, 1850, 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



43 



the first church bell to ring out its mes- 
sage from a belfry in Minnesota was heard. 
It hung in the tower of the First Presby- 
terian church of St. Paul. , 




DAVID M. ci.orGH. 
Governor of Minnesota — 150.">-1899. 

The churches planted in these early days 
grew rapidly. So large indeed was the 
conception of the needs of the young ter- 
ritory that in 185 1 a bishopric of the Cath- 
olic church was created and the Right 
Reverend Joseph Cretin became the first 
bishop of St. Paul. In the same year the 
Wisconsin Methodist conference took cog- 
nizance of churches of that denomination 
at St. Paul, St. Anthony, Stillwater and 
Point Douglas. The St. Paul Pioneer of 
July 29, 1852, notes the advent of the 
church organ. As the years went by such 
names as Knickerbacker, Whipple, Grace 
and Ireland, appeared in the pages of 
church history later to become most prom- 
inent in the religious life of the state. The 
thought of religious education developed 
early, and the Presbyterian, Methodist, 
Congregational, Baptist, Episcopal, Catho- 
lic and several Lutheran denominations 
established schools and colleges. Church 
architecture made slower progress; in 1875 
the First Baptist Church of St. Paul was 
"the finest church edifice in Minnesota." 
In 1890 there were 3.429 church organiza- 
tions in the state, with 2,619 church edi- 
fices, while church property was valued at 
$12,940,152. The membership was 532,590, 



which was about 41 per cent of the popula- 
tion of the state. 

The Close of a Half Century. 

Minnesota reaches the end of her first 
fifty years in the enjoyment of conditions 
which give promise of still more remark- 
able development in the years which will 
round out her century. Analyzing these 
conditions, the most striking and signifi- 
cant appear in what is ordinarily referred 
to as the higher life of the people. At no 
time in the history of the state has there 
been a larger interest in matters educa- 
tional, moral, social and governmental 
than during the last few years. The edu- 
cational system of the state is better un- 
derstood, and may be fairly said to have 
a more general support from all classes 
of people, than ever before. Legislation 
in its interests has become distinctly more 
friendly and intelligent. There is a signi- 
ficant tendency to inquire into improve- 
ments and extensions and developments 
along the lines of modern thought. That 
the people of Minnesota are thinking is 
demonstrated by increased attention to the 
public charities, and a very evident desire 
to have the correctional work of the com- 




joim LI>'D. 
Governor of Minnesota— 189'J. 

monwealth carried on on broad and in- 
telligently moral lines. There is evidence 
of a large interest in social questions, in the 
relations of labor and capital, in municipal 



44 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



government, in the pnrity of elections, and 
other similar subjects. These can only be 
touched upon. These conditions are per- 
haps, the natural results of the experiences 
of Minnesota; they certainly reflect a high- 
er average of quality in population than 
exists in most Western states. In 1895 
about one-third of the population of the 
state was foreign born. But Minnesota has 
been fortunate in attracting largely a class 
of immigrants readily assimilated and ready 
to adopt American customs and ideas. The 
state has never been troubled with large 
connnunities which insisted upon preserv- 
ing their old country customs and lan- 
guages. 

It is. of course, impossible to ([uite sep- 
arate these higher conditions from tlie 
more material. They afifect each other too 
nearly. The natural resources and ma- 
terial prosperity of the state have attracted 
the more intelligent immigration: the char- 
acter of the immigrants has aided in devel- 
oping the wealth of the state. Population 
increase in Minnesota has been relatively 
enormous. Commencing with 6,000 people 
in 1850, succeeding counts have shown, in 
i860, T72,ooo; in 1870, 439.000; in 1880. 780.- 
000; and in i8go, 1.301,000. Each decade 
has excelled its predecessor in actual 
growth. From 1850 to i860 the increase 
was 165,000; from i860 to 1870. 267.000; 
from 1870 to 1880. 341.000; and from 1880 
to 1890, 521.000. .\s the growth between 
1890 and 1895, as shown by the state cen- 
sus of the latter year, indicated a still 
larger rate of increase, it is fair to assume 
that the census of 1900 will give Minne- 
sota very nearly 2,000,000 population. 

But with two millions of people Min- 
nesota would have but twenty-four to the 
square mile, as against 278 in Massachu- 



setts, ninety in Ohio and sixty-eight in 
Illinois. If peopled as densely as Ohio 
Minnesota would have about 7,500,000 in- 
habitants; and the land, acre for acre, is 
quite as well adapted to the support of pop- 
ulation. Climate and prosperity are other 
conditions which will lead to increasing 
growth. An unusually low percentage of 
crop failures and four healthful seasons 
each year are attractive to farmers. Busi- 
ness conditions giving unusual opportuni- 
ties for the investment o' capital must con- 
tinue to build up the cities of the state. 
Many facts in the record of the advance 
of Minnesota's commercial afifairs are sug- 
gestive and interesting; some of them are 
referred to in a supplementary chapter. 
The conditions at the close of 1899 are 
most gratifying. The reverses of 1893 
worked. to clarify the commercial atmos- 
phere. Unsound ventures were weeded 
out. better methods were adopted. The 
commercial interests of the state are now 
on a sound and substantial basis. Inflated 
values have lieen eliminated from real 
estate, and wild speculation discouraged. 
Mortgage indebtedness in city and country 
has been much reduced. All conditions en- 
courage increased operations in established 
business and invite new enterprises. 

The state of Minnesota enters on a new 
half century with the brightest promise. 
The people of the North Star State are 
warranted in looking for\yard to a large 
material development and great progress 
in the higher life. *rhey might re-adopt, 
for use during the remainder of the state's 
first century, the old territorial motto, 

"Quae sursum volo videre" — literally, "I 
wish to see what is above" — or, freely 
translated in the spirit of the pioneers who 

adopted it, "I look for higher things." 



# 



Minnesota's Commercial Progress During 

Fifty Years. 



Fifty vL-ars is liut a short time in whicli 
to build 11]) a great commereial system. 
When one sees the great warehonscs of St. 
Paul, Minneapolis and Duluth crowded 
with merchandise and teeming with 
activity: when the map of the state, 
gridironcd with railroads, is opened: 
when the port of Diiluth is visited 
and its great lake commerce seen; 
when the grand totals of manufacturing 
and commerce in the state are footed up: 
— when all this is considered, as it is in the 
year 1899. it is difficult to realize that half 
a century ago Minnesota was a wilderness, 
that not a railroad had reached its bor- 
ders, tliat manufacturing was unknown, 
and that even the growing of crops for ex- 
port had not commenced. When Minne- 
sota became a territory in 1849, the only 
settlements were about the present sites of 
Minneapolis and St. Paul and along the 
St. Croix. West of the Mississippi ex- 
tended an luibroken reach of forest and 
prairie — beautiful and productive even as 
it is now — but then inhabited only by sav- 
ages. Such trade as was to be found was 
handled in a rude way in the villages of 
St. Paul and St. Anthony. It consisted 
largely of tratiic with the Indians. The 
furs thus secured went down the river on 
steamboats wliich brought to the frontier 
villages such necessities and luxuries as 
could be afforded by the hardy pioneers. 
In place of the great railway lines which 
now di.stribute goods to every corner of 
the state, the famous' Red River carts were 
dragged with luuch toil over woods and 
prairies, the journey from St. Anthony 
to the Red river and return occupying most 
of the season. 

The census of 1850 showed a population 
of only 6,077 people. Then came a rush of 
immigration. Steamboats pvished up the 
Minnesota valley, and settlements sprung 
into being. .-Mong the Mississippi towns 
were established, both above and below 
the original settlements at St. Paul and 



St. .\nthony. But until war times llu- 
only means of transporting freight in quan- 
tities was by steamer. After the war came 
the railroad era. and then were laid the 
foundations of the great commercial struc- 
tures of today. With means of transpor- 
tation to the interior, immigration flour- 
ished. The production of wheat made 
possible the millin.g industry: the demand 
for building material gave the lumbering 
business an impetus; while the demands 
of th.e rapidly increasing population opened 
tlie way for wholesale trade in all lines. 
Fully a quarter of a million of people were 
found to be in the state when the census 
of 1865 was taken. 

But two things were still wanting. Their 
absence was not generally realized as a 
hindrance to the commercial development 
of the state; but when they came they were 
recognized as exercising a most powerful 
influence. In the seventies they came — the 
self-binding harvester and tlie roller pro- 
cess for making dour. Supplemented by 
the ever-increasing transportation facili- 
ties, these two things made it possible for 
the northwestern fartuer to compete with 
the world in supplying breadstuffs. With- 
in ten years the two Dakotas had added 
hundreds of thousands to their population 
and Minnesota had filled up with people. 
It was at this time — generally speaking, 
from 1875 to 1885— that the great wholesale 
trade of the commercial centers of the state 
advanced to metropolitan proportions; that 
the great manufacturing industries which 
have made Minnesota famous the world 
over, reached pre-eminence; that com- 
merce and trade began to be counted as 
prominent parts of the life of a state which 
had before been looked upon only as a 
promisin.g agricultural possibility. 



F"rench and English traders invaded 
Minnesota during the last century. When 



4G A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 

(XK><><>C<><>O<><><><>O<><><>0«<X><><>OO<><>O<>O0O<><><>O<K><><><^^ 

I THE OLD RELIABLE | 

Peter Schuttler Wa^onJ 




pOR FIFTY-SIX YEARS it has led 
* them all. The only large wagon man- 
ufacturers in America who make their own 
hubs, spokes, felloes, bolts, rivets, and all other 
parts from the raw material. All wood stock 
carried from three to five years, and thoroughly 
air seasoned before using. Sold by 

BRADLEY, CLARK & CO., 

225-227-229 Fifth Street N., 
MINNEAPOLIS, - MINNESOTA. 

General Northwestern Agents for 
o 

X Schuttler, Milburn and Sterling Wagons. Bradley Garden 
X City Clipper Walking Plows. Bradley X and XX Roy's 
I Sulky and Gang Plows. Klondike Stem Winder, Vulcan, 
X Century and Dolphin Cultivators. Also a full line of Cutters, 
I Bob Sleds, Wind Mills, Feed Mills, Pumps, Etc. 

<><>0<><><>0<>000<X><><KK><>00<H><><><>00<><><>C>00<>0<X><>00000^<><>^^ 



A HALF CENTURY OP MINNESOTA. 



TH E 



VAMDUSEn- 
HARRINOTOnC^ 




oRAinconnission 

rtltlNEAPOLIScA^^ 
""a^DULUTH 



For some time after St. Paul had been 
settled in 1838 the people were obliged to 
go to Mendota for their supplies. In 1842 
Henrj- Jackson arrived and opened the 
first store in St. Paul. R. W. Mortimer 
lierame a merchant of the coming capital, 
and Daniel Hopkins opened a store at Red 
Rock in the same year. The next St. Paul 
merchant was James W. Simpson, who 
opened a store where the Union block now 
stands, in 1843. William Hartshorn ar- 
rived during the same year, and formed a 
partnership with Henry Jackson — the first 
mercantile alliance of this sort in Minne- 
sota. But the partnership did not last 
long; in 1845 Mr. Hartshorn opened up an 
establishment on his own account, which 
subsequently passed into the hands of 
Freeman, Larpenteur & Co. and later to 
John & VVm. H. Randall. A. L. Larpen- 
teur had been a clerk for both Jackson and 
Hartshorn. He afterwards engaged in 
business on his own account and became 
one of the most prominent merchants of 
St. Paul in the territorial days. Louis Rob- 
ert arrived and opened a store in 1844. In 
1845 about 35 families were settled in and 
about the village, but these could not sup- 
port the five stores which, by that time, 
were in operation: most of the trade was 



l.iout. Pike came out in 1805 to explore 
the country after the Louisiana purchase, 
he found J. B. Faribault, Fraser and Mur- 
doch Cameron, Pierre Roseau, Joseph 
Renville, Porlier, Robert Dickson. Grant 
and Hugh McGillis. McGillis was the dis- 
trict superintendent or manager for the 
Northwest Company, and mosi of the oth- 
ers mentioned were in his employ. The 
trade of this time was all barter — the pur- 
chase of furs by means of supplies and 
trinkets, which were highly valued by the 
ignorant savages. To some extent Ameri- 
can traders superceded the French and 
English after Pike's visit, but for a long 
time there was much friction between the 
rival frontier business men. Trade took 
on no more settled aspect until 1834, when 
Henry H, Sibley came to Alendota as the 
representative of the American Fur Com- 
pany, in which he was a partner. He 
erected the first permanent warehouse for 
the transaction of mercantile business in 
what is now Minnesota, and may justly be 
styled the first business man of Minnesota. 
His old stone warehouse at Mendota re- 
mained for many years the monument of 
the beginning of regular commercial 
transactions in this state. 



When you see the brand 

" Hiawatha 

on 

Canned Goods 
Teas 
Coffees 



»» 



and 



Spices 

it is a g-uaranty of 

EXCELLENT QUALITY 



The brand is copyrig-hted by 

STONE-ORDEAN- WELLS CO. 

Wholesale Grocers 
DULUTH 



48 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



I 



Zim 

Special 

Bicycles 

Our Ninth Bicycle Year. 

We arc tlie 
Northwestern 

PIONEERS and 

LEADERS. 




I^acine 
Bicycles 

Bic}xles for old 
and young — all 
sizes — rich and 
poor — all grades. 




VICTOR QANQ PLOW. 

This plow is strong; has extra heavy landsides, 2X2^^ beams. Is light draught; has 
high wheels and the right shaped mouldhoards. A boy can cipcratc it; has springs to help 
lift, and a foot lever to drop the bottoms. Turns a square corner properly; has peculiar 
shaped slots in castings that connect the rod with fnmt and rear furrow wheels, s<j that the 
tongue controlling them does not affect the rear wheel until after the front wheel has made 
the turn. Has relief spring to take off the jnit when wheel passes over obstruction.-. 
Begins plowing the instant bottoms strike the soil; does not drag an inch. 



If our oroods 
are not 
represented 
in your 
town 



^" BUOOIES. 1 

FARM IMPLEMENTS. 

BrCYCLES. , 



kindly write 
us, giving 
the name 
of your 
dealer. 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



49 



with tlie Indians and fur traders. Each 
merchant carried a general stock of goods, 
in which liciuor played a prominent part; 
specializing had not been thought of. But 
it was at hand; Charles Cavileer embarked 
in the saddlery business in 1845, and after- 
wards joined with Dr. Dewey in the drug 
business, opening the first Minnesota drug 
store. William H. Randall, referred to 
above as a successor of Larpenteur, 
reached St. Paul in 1846. and was. perhaps, 
the most prominent merchant in the city 
until the crash of 1857. It was he who 
built the old stone warehouse on the levee, 
which was regarded as a model of mer- 
cantile architecture in those days. 

Up to this time all that there was of 
Minneapolis was a group of houses on 
the east side. The place was known as 
St. Anthony, but until 1847 it was not of 
enough importance to have a store. In 
that year R. P. Russell commenced busi- 
ness, and became the pioneer merchant of 
the coming city. The second store was 
opened in 1849 by William R. Marshall, 
afterwards governor of Minnesota. Dur- 
ing the same year John G. Lennon opened 
a branch of P. Chotean & Co. Two years 
later Franklin Steele and John H. Stevens, 
under the firm name of John H. Stevens & 
Co., opened the fourth commercial estab- 



EAT 

HOME BRAND 

rOODS 



ITHE.Y ALL WANT TnEM 
GET IN LINE 
"^^ GRIGGS COOPERr'^° 
ST PAUL MINN 



2+2 • 262 EAST 3^ ST. 



New England Queen 
-^^Sewing Machines 




Have ^all bearing Stand, 
Elegant finish and the best 
[Material throughout. 

AT VCHOLESALE BY 

FARWELL, OZMUN, KIRK & CO. 
ST. PAUL. 




lishmcnt. Among the other pioneer busi- 
ness men were J. P. Wilson, R. P. Upton 
and E. & S. W. Case. 

On the west side the first store was 
i ipened in 1853 by Thomas Chambers. It 
occupied a building owned by Col. Stev- 
ens on Bridge Square. Col. Stevens 
platted his farm in the next year, and com- 
menced to sell and give away business lots, 
and during that season nine stores were 
started in Minneapolis. E. H. Davis and 
John Califf opened the first hardware store; 
a carriage factory was started by James 
F. Bradley; John M. Anderson opened the 
first book store: A. K. Hartwell, the first 
insurance agency; George N. Proper and 
Carlos Wilco.x, the first real estate and loan 
business, and Mrs. A. Morrison, the first 
millinery store. There were seventeen 
stores in ^Minneapolis in 1855; in 1857 there 
were forty-two. 

Meanwhile St. Paul had been making 
;.;reater progress. It was the older and 
more important town. It is recorded that 
in 1849 the mercantile business of the place 
amounted to $131,000. The first exclusive 
hardware store in Minnesota was opened 
this year, and from that time on the general 
stores of the pioneers began to give way 



50 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



before those devoted tp a single line of 
business. In this change toward more 
modern practices the Indian supply stores 
were not included. They continued, as 
they had from the beginning, to handle 
ail kinds of goods suited to the traffic with 
the red men, and were a prominent feature 
of St. Paul and St. Anthony mercantile 
life until after the war. With their occu- 
pation gone, through the advent of civiliza- 
tion and the departure of the Indians, they 
gradually disappeared. 

The first business directory issued in St. 
Paul, in 1850, showed sixteen merchants. 



tiersman eked out his living by taking 
game. St. Paul became the center of the 
fur trade of Minnesota and parts of Da- 
kota and Wisconsin, as well as the market 
for the buffalo skins taken on tlie north- 
western prairies. The work of extermina- 
tion went on apace, and as it progressed 
the fur trade increased. An old record 
places the volume of the St. Paul fur busi- 
ness at $1,500 in 1844, $15,000 in 1850, $40,- 
000 in 1855, $182,491 in 1857, $186,000 in 
i860, $202,000 in 1862, and $250,000 in 1863. 
St. Paul was for a long time one of the 
leading fur markets in America. 



>0<><>0000<><K>0<><KM>0<><><><X><)<K><><><>OOOC)<)00<)<><><><>^^ 



AGRICULTURAL LANDS AND IMPROVED 
FARMS FOR SALE IN EVERY COUNTY 
IN MINNESOTA UPON EASY TERMS. 



^ 



PINE. CEDAR AND TIMBER 
LANDS BOUGHT AND SOLD. 



W. D. WASHBURN, JR. 

Farm Lands bought and sold for cash or on easy terms, in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the 
Dakotas. Listings of non-residents and others desiring to sell at once for cash are particularly 
solicited. Valuations forwarded on application. 

Send for free list of farms and lands in your own county. 

302 Guaranty Loan Building, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA. 

6<>(><K><><><><>0<>0<>(><><><K>0<K><><><K>00<>0<><H>0<><^^ 



three tailors, one shoemaker, two black- 
smiths, three bakers, a harness maker, a 
silversmith, a gun maker and a tinner. 



With the early fifties a branch of trade 
which was for a long time one of the chief 
sources of wealth of St. Paul and St. .An- 
thony, began to develop. From the earli- 
est times there had been a large traffic 
with the Indians in furs, but as the coun- 
try filled up. and settlers became scattered 
over the entire region, the output of furs 
was enormously increased. Every fron- 



Until 1857 the business of the two cities 
continued to grow and prosper: but it was 
still the retail trade of frontier towns. 
When the business directory of that year 
was published St. Paul counted 158 busi- 
ness houses. Minneapolis and St. .An- 
thony were much behind this, but were 
thriving business places. Then came the 
crash, and in the panic most of the busi- 
ness houses in the three towns closed their 
doors. Some of the suspensions were per- 
manent; others were but temporary, and 
after a hard struggle, the iiroprietors re- 
sumed business. 



•••• 
•••• 



••• 
•••• 
• •«. 
•••• 

•••• 
•••• 
•••• 

•••• 
•••• 

•••• 




TJtADE MARK REGrsTERLD 



!•• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 



612-6I/J-616 

Fourth Street 
SoutK. 



Minneapolis, 
Minn. 






•••• 
•••• 
•••• 
•••• 
•••• 
•••• 
■••• 
•••• 



A HALF CEXTrRV OP MINNESOTA 



51 



The panic of "57, however, hastened on 
the development of the wholesale trade 
of the young cities. It had been the cus- 
tom among the country merchants to buy 
their stocks in the east, but the curtail- 
ment of credits incident to the panic 
stopped much of this and they were forced 
to seek supplies in St. Paul and St. An- 
thony. They would come in and buy in 
small lots for cash. The city merchants 
were not slow to take advantage of the sit- 
uation by providing themselves as well as 
possible for this unexpected addition to 
their business. Once started, the idea of 



lis is also in the hardware line, and traces 
its origin back to the retail hardware busi- 
ness founded by Gov. John S. Pillsbury in 
1855. Thus the two oldest wholesale 
liardware establishments in the state were 
founded by men who afterwards became 
governors. After Gov. Pillsbury's with- 
drawal from the concern it changed sev- 
eral times, and at last became widely 
known as Janney, Semple & Co. Nicols 
& Dean have maintained the same name 
since i860. 

Kelly & Brother began business in the 
retail grocery line in Minneapolis in 1858. 



T. L. BLOOD «c CO.'s 



READY MIXED 

HOUSE, BARN, FLOOR 
AND CARRIAGE 



LOOK AND WEAR BEST! 

SOLD IN EVERY TOWN. 



:: ST. PAUL, 

A AAA A AAA A.A.A.A..A.A.A.A. .< 



MINNESOTA. 



4 
♦ 



i 






obtaining goods within the borders of the 
state easily became a tixed one, and in a 
few years the foundations of the great job- 
bing business in the Twin Cities were 
firmly laid. 

Under these rapid changes in conditions 
some of the old retail houses lound them- 
selves unexpectedly launched on the sea 
of jobbing. The old concern established in 
St. Paul by Gov. Alarshall, and which be- 
came in 1855. Nicols & Berkey, grew into 
the wholesale hardware hovise of Nicols & 
Dean. Oddly enough the oldest estab- 
lishment in the jobbing trade in Minneapo- 



In 1864 P. H. Kelly withdrew and entered 
a grocery house in St. Paul, while Anthony 
continued in Minneapolis, building up a 
large jobbing business. John Dunham en- 
tered the grocery business in Minneapolis 
in the later fifties, and from this small 
beginning grew the large concern of wliich 
he is still the head. When P. H. Kelly 
went to St. Paid he became partner in the 
firm of Beaupre & Kelly, which succeeded 
Temple & Beaupre. a concern dating back 
to 1855. The firm subsequently became P. 
H. Kelly & Co., under which name it was 
long known in the northwestern jobbing 



JosEi'H McKiBiux. IIkm'.v IIa>enwinki,f. .\nTHrH B. Diii^i oll. William .\. Doi!<iey f 

\ 



McKIBBIN & CO., 



Makers and Jobbers cf 



! 

JHats, Gloves and Furs. 



t 



NONE BETTER MADE . 
ASK YOUR DEALER FOR McKIBBIN'S' GOODS. 



ST, PAUL, 



MINNESOTA.! 



52 



A HALF CEXTURV OF MINNESOTA. 



trade. P. F. McQuillan founded a gro- 
cery establishment in 185S in St. Paul, and 
in 1864 was joined by J. H. Allen, wlfose 
name has remained in the establishment to 
this day. Cheritree & Farweil established 
in St. Paul in 1859, laid the foundations 
for the firm of Farweil, Ozmun, Kirk & 
Co. A business established in i860 by C. 
D. Strong, has now become the C. W. 
Hackett Hardware Company. Justus & 
Forepaugh became retail dry gools mer- 
chants in St. Paul in 1857. and the house 
has continued to the present time, and is 
now Finch, VanSlyck, Young & Co. 

These are but the pioneers. It is ob- 
viously impossible within the limits of this 
sketch to trace the foundation of all the 
wholesale establishments of the state. 
Those which have been mentioned are the 
principal ones which can trace their gene- 
ology back to the days before the war. 
After the war wholesale trade developed 
rapidly, but it was for a time limited by the 
lack of shipping facilities, and the absence 
of consuming population. In these days 
when vast quantities o'f goods are shipped 
from Minnesota jobbing houses into a doz- 
en western states, it is difficult to realize 
that thirty years ago there was practically 
no population west of central Minnesota. 



* MORGAN BROUKS 
; Rresldent 



GEO. W. HAVFORD ; 
Sec. and Treas. ' 



Electrical 
* Engineering Company 

311-313 Second Avenue South 
. MINNEAPOLIS. MINN. 

i 



i 

[ Everything Electrical j 
» 4 

» Electric Light and Power Supplies J 

* Electrical House Goods J 

* Telephones J 

» « 

J Batteries for Gasoline Engines and J 

t Slot Machines 

I Medical Batteries for Home Use 



I 



ONLY STOCK in the NORTHWEST J 



I ONLY STOCK in the NORT 



..THE.. 



»> 



"Clipper 
Camera 



The '-CLIPPER' can be loaded with a spool t>f 
continuous lUm for '2A or 48 or ItiO 4x5 ex- 
posures. By turning the key the liliu is uuto- 
raatically cut off at the end of each exposure 
and brings into position for exposure anothfT 
Bection. Snap the shutter and turn tht^ key 
is all the operation necessary and is repeated 
for any number of exposures. 

No experience in photography required. Tht- 
novice can operate the "CLIPPER" as suc- 
cessfully as the expert. 

The "CLIPPER" has the combined advantages of 
other film or plate cameras and more than 
eight times the capacity, witJiQut Increasing 
the size or weight. 

MANUFACTrilED I'.V 

THE CUPPER CAMERA MT'G CO. 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
ais Second Ave. So. 



.uid no railroads extending more than a 
imndred miles towards what is now one of 
the richest farming countries in the world. 
But the population came in in great vol- 
ume, and within ten years after the end 
III the w'ar the wholesale, business of the 
trade centers of Minnesota had well de- 
veloped. Nearly all the larger houses now 
doing business in Minneapolis and St. Paul 
were founded during or before the seven- 
lies. 

At first, as has been indicated, only the 
old staple lines of trade were represented 
in the jobbing business. Groceries and 
hardware were about the onlj- things which 
it would pay to wholesale in the early 
times: though, of course, these names were 
made to cover a much wider and more 
general classification of merchandise than 
at present. Dry goods became the next 
specialty — it is odd to speak of dry goods 
as a specialty in jobbing — and drugs, 
liquors, implements, paper, glass and a 
dozen other lines followed in quick succes- 
sion. The wholesale business of the state 
now includes not only houses in all these 
old lines, but concerns which handle ex- 
clusively a score or more of classes of 
merchandise not thought of as possible in 
that connection a few decades back. 



A HALF CENTURY OP MINNESOTA. 



53 



Boots and shoes, rubber goods, furniture, 
millinery, spices, harness, electrical goods, 
confectionery, building materials, plumb- 
ers' supplies, printers' supplies, mantels 
and grates, office fixtures, bank fixtures, 
bar fixtures, coal, cigars and tobacco, 
crockery and glass ware, paints and oils, 
jewelry, photographers' supplies, wooden- 
ware, scales, railroad supplies, hats and 
caps, furs, woolens, notions, furnishing 
goods, silks, heavy hardware, wall paper, 
window shades, seeds, stationery, clothing, 
fish, meats — these and more are the special 
lines of jobbing, to say nothing of the 



in 1890 $135,000,000. The use of such esti- 
mates has been very largely discontinued 
of recent years, the jobbers themselves or- 
dinarily being the first to pronounce them 
very uncertain aggregations of figures. In 
the nature of things, it is almost impossible 
to arrive at accurate conclusions as to 
the volume of business which is so inter- 
mingled with other classes of trade, and 
regarding which no official returns are de- 
manded by the government. 



Manufacturing in the state dates from 



Che^o^j3 T^^LT^tJCL L-^a^i^d^s 

ON THE "SOO" RAILWAY IN WISCONSIN. 




A DAIRY AND STRAWBERRY FARM IN CHIPPEWA COUNTY, WIS. 

Fine hardwood farming lands, with rich soil, clay suhsoil, near stations, at $4.00 TO $6.00 PER 

ACRE on easy payments. 

A NATURAL STOCK AND DAIRY COUNTRY. 

For clover and wrasse.') this region is not excelled anywhere. An abundance of pure soft water, and a 
healthful climate. Lowest fares to lan^l seekers. For free descriptive maps write to 

D. W. CASSEDAY, Land Comr "Soo" Railway MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 



wholesale handling of grain and flour, 
butter, apples, potatoes, and other 
produce. Enormous quantities of fruit are 
jobbed in Minneapolis and St. Paul. 

The money volume of the wholesale 
trade in Minnesota is a matter of conjec- 
ture. Many estimates have been made, but 
all are more or less unsatisfactory. In 
1880 it was claimed that the jobbing busi- 
ness of St. Paul aggregated $40,000,000, 
and two years later that it had increased 
to $62,000,000. In 1898 it was claimed to 
be $165,000,000. Minneapolis in 1880 
claimed $24,000,000, in 1885 $61,000,000, and 



the erection of the government mill at the 
falls of St. Anthony in 1821. This, how- 
ever, was so crude a form of production 
and the trifling output being put to no 
commercial uses, it is more exact to 
say that manufacturing in Minnesota be- 
gan with the completion of a saw mill at 
Marine, on the St. Croix in 1839. It was 
entirely natural that lumber manufactur- 
ing should be the first to take root in Min- 
nesota. The pine forests in those days ex- 
tended almost to the doors of St. Anthony, 
and there was an immediate and impera- 
tive demand for lumber for building. ."Kgri- 



54 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA 



culture had not developed to any appre- 
ciable extent, and there were practically 
no products of field or pasture to supply 
the raw materials for the industries which 
now employ the energies of a large popu- 
lation. Lumber was the obvious thing to 
make first; and the pioneers set about 
making it with characteristic energy. 

The saw mill at Marine commenced to 
saw lumber on August 24, 1839. Another 
mill was built at St. Croix Falls about the 
same time, and in 1843 a saw mill was 
begun at Stillwater. The industry was 
well established on the St. Croix river be- 



lowmg year, when S. W. Farnhani started 
up this primitive lumber producer. The 
mill was equipped with a single, old-fash- 
ioned sash saw. and could cut about 4,000 
feet in twelve hours. The first saw mill to 
be built west of the river was that of Simon 
Stevens at the outlet of Lake Minnetonka. 
constructed in 1852. Ard. Godfrey, who 
came out from Maine to build Mr. Steele's 
mill, settled at the present site of the sol- 
diers' home, and in 1853 built a saw mill 
near the mouth of Minnehaha creek. In 
1850 a saw mill operated by steam power 
was completed at St. Paul. The first 



FINCH, VAN SLYCK, YOUNG & CO., 




fore anything was done at St. Anthony. 
The famous Joseph R. Brown, who settled 
at Stillwater, was the first man in 
Minnesota to raft lumber. The lumber- 
ing industry in Minnesota thus an- 
tedates the formation of government by 
ten years, and has been carried on without 
break for sixty years. 

Franklin Steele had. a hand in the St. 
Croix Falls mill, but soon left that sec- 
tion to establish himself at St. Anthony, 
where he had ta"ken a claim. In 1847 he 
commenced the erection of a saw mill, and 
the lumbering industry which has made 
Minneapolis noted, commenced in the fol- 



boards sawed by steam power in the ter- 
ritory were turned out of this mill. 

From these modest beginnings the lum- 
bering business of Minnesota grew until 
it has now reached probably its maxi- 
mum. With the exhaustion of the forests 
of Michigan and Wisconsin, the supply- 
ing of white pine has come to devolve upon 
Minnesota. As the Michigan lumbering 
cities reached their limits and disappeared 
from the sawing industry many of the 
prominent lumbermen moved to Minne- 
sota. Some settled at Minneapolis, oth- 
ers at Winona, on the St. Croix, at Du- 
luth, Cloquet, and interior points. Wis- 



A HALF CENTURV OK MINNESOTA. 



55 



consin was at first a strong competitor, 
but its timber is now practically gone, 
and Minnesota remains almost alone in 
the field. And already the pine trees of 
this state have been, it might almost be 
said, counted and the lumbermen, looking 
forward to the extinction of the industry, 
are planning to move on the great forests 
of the Pacific slope. ,\ good authority 
places the standing pine in Minnesota in 
1899 at seven billion feet. Of this about 
one and one-half billion were to be cut 
this winter — a striking way of stating that 
the industry is reaching its end. The lum- 
ber produced in Minnesota has grown 
from the few thousand feet cut by the St. 
Croix mills in 18.59 to a total of 1.630.000,- 
000 feet in i8g8 — an amount which was 
■considerably exceeded in 1899. 



Like the lumbering industry, flour mill- 
ing in Minnesota had its beginnings in 
the old government mill at the Falls of 
St. Anthony, but unlike the picturesque 
operations of felling the pine forests and 
converting them into lumber, the flour 
makin.g business has been quite dry and 
prosaic. It was destined, however, to car- 



e^^'ARCHIBALD ^^ 
BUSINESS COLLEGE 

COR. STEVENS AVE."4> LAKE. ST., MmNE;\PpLI5. 



«^>i^k^k^ «v«FhVW*B^>^«^k^iiFkFftWi«Fl^^^^*^^k'^'^^*^K^^^^^ 




DULUTH 
ARTIFICIAL 
LIMB CO. 

W. n. Kespohl, rigr. 






% Inventors an J Maniifiuturprs of the ' 

1 SINGLE ADJUSTABLE SLIP ^ 
I SOCKET ARTIFICIAL LIMBS. I 

• Also manufaitiirers and (l»^nlerg ia all kinds of j 
J ilfforinity appliances. | 

5 ' NO. 18*5 THIRD AVENUE WEST, I 



The Kcclcy Curcj 

ITS BLACKMAILING IMITATORS. : 

TO THE PUBLIC: | 

MANY tboiisand conlirnied drunkards and t 
drug ueers are annually restored to so- \ 
briety, home, happiness, good citizen^^Iiip X 
and earning capacity by the geuufnc Keeley treat- \ 
nient, and many tliousaud more \\ould bn en re- J 
stnred were it not for the heartless, tlackmailing t 
i^ysti^iu of robbery practiced by hundreds of so- * 
called physicians who prey upon the community ♦ 
with wortlile^s and disastrous cures. >Ve luue a ■ 
record of more than twelve hundred of these body \ 
destroying, health and home v.reckers, scattered ■ 
over every state in the union, thn bad results of • 
whose work ia truly ai)paUing, and because inoet 
of them have stolen Dr. Keeley's liverv under • 
which to pose as "(Jold Cures," "they are able to ■ 
impose on the unsnppecting. and by offering a ; 
cheap j)i"ice for a worse than worthless ser^ ice, - 
add disaster to misfortune by their heartless ef- • 
forts to obtain money by false jiretenses. It is 
entirely legitimate for any i)hy8ician to experi- ; 
ment with a cure of his own, and if he can obtain ■ 
patients upon the honest repr'^seiitation that the ■ 
remedy is of his own compounding, he deceives ; 
uo one; but when he falsely pretends that he ■ 
administers the genuine Keeley Cure, the peni- ■ 
tentiary ia the proper place for'him. It comes to ; 
our knowledge that several parties in tlie State of j 
MinnetJota are falsely claiming to pell the Keelev 
remedies and administer the Keelev treatment. 
This ia notice to all concerned that the Genuine ' 
Keeley Remedies and Treatment cannot be ob- 
tained in the State of Minnt-sdta at anv other 
place than The Keeley Institute, cornpr Pnrk 
AvenueandTenth Street, Minneapolis. All others ; 
so claiming to supply are inipdsters and frauds, : 
and the public should be governed accordingly 

THE LESLIE E. KEELEY CO. 

(Seventeen Years of EstablUhed Merit.) 



ry tlie fame of Minnesota over the whole 
civilized world, and to play a much more 
important part than lumbering in the de- 
velopment of the state. When the last log 
sliall have been sawed, and the hum of the 
saw mills forever stopped, the flour mill- 
ing business of Minnesota will be still 
going on — the leading manufacturing in- 
dustry of the northwest. 

For nearly thirty years the garrison of 
Fort SnelHng ground more or less flour 
and corn meal in the original mill. In 
1849 it passed into the hands of Robert 
Smith, a congressman from Illinois. Cal- 
\\n Tuttle. one of the St. .'\nthony pio- 
neers, operated the mill under a lease from 
.\lr. Sinitli. from 1850, for !-:*vcral years, 
and its site was finally occupied in 1859 by 
the Cataract mill. Meanwhile R. C. Rog- 
ers had established a small mill on the 
east side, in 1851, and in 1854 the first 
merchant - flour mill in Minnesota was 
erected by John Rollins, John Eastman 
and R. P. Upton. It was a three run mill. 
This mill was a little in advance of the re- 
sources of the farmers of Minnesota, and 
for the first two years the wheat must 
needs be imported from Iowa and Wis- 
consin. Not until 1859 was the first ship- 
ment of Minnesota flour made to the east. 



56 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



A group of small mills grew up on Hen- 
nepin island during the fifties, but it was 
not until after the war that mill building 
commenced in earnest, and then for the 
first time appeared the names of the men 
who have been later associated with the 
great rise in milling. Washburn. Pills- 
bury, Christian, Crosby, Dunwoody began 
to be known as the names of leaders in 
the milling world. About 1872 the mid- 
dlings purifier was developed, and a few 
years later the milling of wheat was revo- 
lutionized by the Hungarian roller process. 
Both improvements were invented, or 
adapted, by the genius of Minneapolis mill- 
ers. From this time the rise of milling was 
rapid and its future secure. Railroads had al- 
ready opened the western part of the state 
and the rich plains of Dakota, and north- 
ern hard spring wheat was acquiring a 
reputation the world over. Exporting 
was commenced with many difficulties in 
1878. but in a few years the product of the 
Minneapolis mills was established in repu- 
tation in the leading foreign markets. 
From 109,183 barrels exported in '78, the 
Minneapolis mills alone developed their 
export trade to 4,000,000 barrels, in round 
numbers, in 1898. The output of the Min- 
neapolis mills increased from 940.000 bar- 
rels in 1878 to over 15,000.000, as is esti- 
mated for the year 1899. 

While Minneapolis became, by virtue of 
priority and pecuUar advantages, the leader 
in the flour industry of the state, other 
cities and towns were not idle. A nota- 
ble group of mills was established at Du- 
luth. Fergus Falls developed a fine mill- 
ing industry. New Ulm early took a prom- 
inent part in the business, while Hastings, 
Cannon Falls. Red Wing, Stillwater, Wi- 
nona. St. Cloud, Faribault, Red Lake 
Falls, Montevideo, Mankato, Shakopee, 
Lanesboro, Austin, Sleepy Eye, Houston, 
Northfield, Little Falls, and other of the 
smaller cities of the state have excellent 
mills of good capacity. The total output 
of the state for 1899 is estimated at about 
25.000,000 barrels. 

Closely related to the milling business 
is the cooperage industry, which has 
grown up side by side with the greater 
line, and has developed as it has devel- 
oped. The unusually large demands for 
barrels in Minneapolis made it possible 
to establish the industry on a unique ba- 
sis, and gave to the world one of the few 
successful examples of co-operation in 
America. 



In the pioneer days flour and lumber 
were the only manufactures of any impor- 



tance; but the foundations were being pre- 
pared for other large and successful manu- 
facturing undertakings. For instance J. H. 
Schurmeier established himself in 1852 as a 
wheelwright in St. Paul; the business has 
now grown to be almost national in extent. 
Orin Rogers built a furniture factory in 
1854 in St. Anthony, which has continued 
to the present time, and is now the Bar- 
nard factory of Minneapolis. This mod- 
est shop was the beginning of the furni- 
ture manufacturing industry of Minnesota, 
which now represents millions of capital 
and annual production. Mr. Rogers also 
figured as the pioneer of the sash, door 
and blind manufacturing of the state. In 
the same year in which he started his fur- 
niture shop he commenced in a small way 
to make sash and doors. Next year a 
regular factory was erected. After varied 
experiences this building became the east 
side pumping house of the Minneapolis 
water works. In the same line a mill was 
established in 1857 by a Mr. Morey, which 
was the commencement of the business 
now conducted by Smith & Wyman. Oth- 
er mills followed in Minneapolis and St. 
Paul, and with the factories which have 
grown up in the other cities of the state, 
the sash and door industry has taken a 
most conspicuous place. 

But to trace even the beginnings oi 
all the manufacturing branches in Minne- 
sota is out of the question in this brief 
chapter. Some of the older and more in- 
teresting should be mentioned, however. 
Conrad Gotzian commenced the manufac- 
ture of shoes in St. Paul in 1859; soap was 
manufactured in St. Paul in 1856, and has 
been continued without intermission by 
the same establishment; E. Broad com- 
menced to make edge tools at St. Anthony 
in 1855, and was the forerunner of the 
enormous metal working industries of the 
state, which in their ramifications include 
everything, from a simple bolt to compli- 
cated engines and machinery, or the entire 
plant for a smelting works. S. T. Fer- 
guson established plow works at Minne- 
apolis in i860, and thus commenced the 
extensive farm implement and machinery 
manufacturing business of Minnesota. Pa- 
per manufacture came in in 1859. For 
many years it made moderate progress, 
but the presence within the state of the 
largest supplies of standing spruce in the 
country suggest that the business has yet 
to see its grandest development. The dis- 
covery of iron ore of high grade leads 
to the expectation of the development oi 
iron furnaces at Duluth. where a ship 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



57 



<><><><><><K>0000^>0<X>000<><><><><><><><><><>0<K>0<><H><><>0-<>000000<><>0-<>^^ 




Popular Route 



To. 



PHir* A riO and all EASTERN POINTS. Connecting: with 
V-.1 li.\^J-^\J\^ ^j^g ^^^ York and Boston Special. (No change 

of Depots.) 

ST LOUIS ^^'^ Points Southeast and Southwest. Only 
Sleeping: Car Line. 

DES MOINES ^^^'^"' Omaha, Salt Lake, San Francisco, 
"^ lVl>^li N J-ikj j^^^ Angeles, San Diego. 

Standard and Compartn^cnt Sleepers 



Through 

Tourist cars to 

Los Angeles, 

California , 

Tuesdays via 

Fort Worth 

and 

El Paso, 

"The Sunny 

Southern 

Route," 

Thursdays 

via 

Colorado 

Springs, Salt 

Lake City 

and 

Ogden, 

"The Scenic 

Route." 

For 

particulars 

address 



W. L HATHAWAY, City Ticket Agent. No. I Nicollet House Block. Minneapolis. 
F. P. RUTHERFORD. City Ticket Agent, - - 396 Robert Street, St. Paul. 

or 
A. B. CUTTS, General Passenger and Ticket Agent, - - Minneapolis, Minn. 

So<X><>00-0<>0<><>0«-»<><>OKK><><><><H><>0<><><><X>0<><><><XH>00^ 




A HALF CENTURY OF MIXXESOTA. 



building industry has already grown up 
under the stimulus of the commerce of 
the great lakes. In late years various 
lines of manufacture have developed in re- 
sponse to modern conditions. Instances 
are the beet sugar manufacture, the mak- 
ing of creamery supplies, the construction 
(if electrical machinery. While the list of 
Minnesota manufactures is so long as to 
seem to leave nothing out, there remain 
nnny industries which are not represented 
:ind to which the state is admirablj- adapt- 
ed. 

In i85o it was reported that Minnesota 
had 562 manufacturing establishments, 
with an invested capital of $2,388,310. The 
census of 1870 announced 2,270 establish- 
ments with a capital of about $12,000,000 
and a product worth over $23,000,000. In 
1880 the census credited the state with 
3,4q3 manufacturing places, utilizing a 
capital of $31,000,000 and turning out $76,- 
000,000 worth of goods: while in 1890 there 



DO YOU 
I SEE THAT 



BAG? 



! It means that our 
I "STERLING" grade of 
• seed represents the 
! best quality obtaina- 



sTEnmc 

cRustcuni 

Seeds 



t 



ble. Catalogue Free. Write for it 



♦ Northrup, King & Co., 

!* Seed Growers, 

MINNEAPOLIS. MINN. 



were summed up 7.5Q5 establishments with 
$127,000,000 capital anl products worth 
$192,000,000. 



The development of the business of 
handling and trading in grain has been 
co-incident with that of milling; their stories 
are almost identical. As was stated in the 
description of the early days of milling, 
the first wheat for the Minneapolis mills 
came from Iowa or Illinois on river steam- 
boats. It was handled in bags and came 
in very small quantities. It was regarded 
as a great event when 2,000 bushels ar- 
rived in one shipment in 1855. But in a 
very short time the direction of the wheat 
shipments was reversed. Mr. James J. 
Hill is authority for the statement that the 



first wheat shipped out of Minnesota was 
in 1857, and that it was raised near Le 
Sueur. Two j'cars afterwards there were 
2.000 bushels of wheat sent from that vicin- 
ity by barge direct to St. Louis. All 
wheat at this time was shipped in sacks. 
Most of it went to LaCrosse or Prairie 
du Chien and from thence to Milwaukee. 
It must be remembered that the Minne- 
apolis mills were still small affairs and 
could not attract wheat from the southern 
part of the state after the farmers began 
to harvest large crops, and they could 
not even Iniy all the wheat raised above 
Minneapolis. Mr. Hill tells of a shipment 
from St. Cloud — the first to be shipped 
from north of the Minnesota river — which 
came to Minneapolis by boat in 1864. It 
was contained in 150 bags and was hauled 
from Minneapolis to the St. Paul levee by 
teams. For a long time the center of the 
grain trade was at the South. Rochester 
was at one time the leading wheat market 
of the state, and after that Red Wing be- 
came the largest primary wheat market in 
the country. But the increase of milling at 
Minneapolis had its inevitable effect, and 
towards the latter part of the si.xties the 
grain trade began to crystalize about the 
milling center. 

Up to this time the mills had easily 
stored the wheat which they bought, and 
grain for trans-shipment was kept in bags; 
but the building of railroads made possible 
the handling of wheat in bulk, and grain 
elevators were wanted. To meet this de- 
mand W. \\'. Eastman. A. H. Wilder. Col. 
Merriani and D. C. Shepherd organized 
the LTnion Elevator Company in 1867 and 
built the old Union elevator at Washing- 
ton and Ninth avenues south in Minne- 
apolis. It had a capacity of 130.000 bush- 
els. The Pacific elevator followed in 1868 
and Elevator A in 1879 on the line of the 
Great Northern near Chestnut avenue; 
This last had a capacity of 780.000 bushels 
and was the largest elevator west of Chi- 
cago. From that time on the growth of 
the grain handling business w'as rapid. In 
1871 there were nine firms engaged in the 
grain business at Minneapolis. Following 
the development of milling, of railroad fa- 
cilities and the rush to Northwestern farm- 
ing, these nine firms have' increased to 
many hundreds in Minneapolis.. Duluth 
and the other cities and towns of the state. 
Minneapolis grain elevators have increased 
froin a capacity of 1.500,000 bushels in 1881 
to 5,000.000 bushels in 1884, 12,500,000 
in 1886. 15.415.000 in 1889. and about 29.- 
000.000 bu'ihcis in 1899. The capacity for 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



59 



storage at Duluth and Superior has also 
reached enormous proportions. In addi- 
tion to these terminal storage houses there 
are hundreds of small elevators along the 
railroad lines through the state. These 
are controlled by large corporations, in 
many cases, and operated in systems with 
headquarters in the cities. 

Previous to 1870 Minneapolis was 
scarcely known among the grain markets 
of the country. But in 1876 her wheat 
receipts had passed 5.000.000 bushels: in 
1880 they had reached 10.000.000 bushels; 
in 1890 45.000.000 bushels, and in 1S98 77.- 



186,470 bushels. Cheap water transporta- 
tion attracted much of the grain for East- 
ern shipment and export to Dululh. and 
that city has developed an enormous trade 
in this line. The combined receipts of the 
ports of Duluth and Superior in 1891 were 
40,000.000 bushels, and in 1898 reached 62,- 
000.000 bushels. 

Minnesota is the leading wheat state in 
the union, and the two Dakotas rank ne.\t, 
excepting Kansas. As Minneapolis and 
Duluth must continue to be the principal 
markets lor these three s^reat states, the 



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THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY will take you 
to Seattle in 2]^ days from St. Paul. Direct steamer 
connections. Write TODAY to F. I. Whitney, St. Paul, 
Minn., for full information. 



159.980 bushels. Only twenty years ago 
Minneapolis was ninth among the primary 
wheat markets of the country; in 1881 she 
became third, and in 1885 took first place, 
outranking Chicago and New York. The 
city has since maintained the lead as tlie 
greatest primary wheat market in the 
world. With the first great rush of mill- 
ing development in the seventies, ^Minne- 
apolis for a time consutned most of the 
wheat received. But gradually a shipping 
business found its place, and from ship- 
ments of 133.600 bushels in 1880 grew to 
12.000.000 bushels in 1890. reached as high 
as 21.000.000 in 1892. and in 1898 was 15,- 



future 01 tlic grain trade of these centers 
is assured. 



Transportation in the wilderness which 
is now Minnesota was conducted, previous 
to 1823. by means of canoes and bateaux. 
The arrival of the "Virginia" at Fort 
Snelling opened the era of steamboat traf- 
fic. It has continued with varying for- 
tunes to the present day. .Arrivals at Men- 
dota in St. Paul were irregular until 1847. 
when the first steamboat company was or- 
ganized and regular boats were put on be- 
tween Mendota and Galena. Russell 



60 



A HALF CEXTL'RV OF MINNESOTA. 



Blakely, who afterwards became a promi- 
nent owner and a leader in the develop- 
ment of the transportation facilities of the 
state, was connected with this company. 
From that time until the opening of com- 
peting railroads the steamboat traffic was 
large and profitable. In 1855 there were 
SS3 arrivals of steamers at St. Paul, and 
one packet company cleared $100,000 net 
profits on the season's business. A steam- 
er which cost $20,000 Cleared $44,000: an- 
other which cost $11,000 made a net in- 
come of $30,000. In the spring of 1857 
twenty-four steamers were tied up at the 
wharf at St. Paul at one time. The year 
1858 saw 1.090 arrivals at St. Paul. Navi- 
gation of the Minnesota river was com- 
menced in 1850 and continued to be a 
profitable business until the close of the 
war. The steamer "Governor Ramsey" 
was launched on the Mississippi river 
above Minneapolis in 1849, and from that 
date until the war there was a considerable 
business on the upper river. Steamboating 
was introduced on the Red river in 1858 
by the building of the Anson Northrup. 

Meantime another means of transporta- 
tion was provided. The Red river carts 
had been in operation since 1843. They 
were rude vehicles of wood and traveled 
the unbroken prairies from St. Paul to 
Pembina. However, something more 
speedy was needed, and from the first 
wagon freighting, commenced in a regular 
fashion between St. Paul and St. Anthony 
in 1849, there arose a system of stages for 
passengers and freight wagons carrying all 
sorts of goods, which extended from St. 
Paul to the Red river, southwards through 
Minnesota and Iowa to Dubuque, and 
north to Duluth. J. C. Burbank, who was 
the most conspicuous figure in this early 
overland transportation system, established 
the first express service in the state in 
1851. In the height of its prosperity the 
firm of Burbank, Blakely & Merriam op- 
erated routes covering 1,300 miles and em- 
ployed over 200 men and 700 horses. 

Railroads sounded the death knell of the 
staging business. As the iron horse 
pushed out from St. Paul during and after 
the war, his burden was for a time taken 
up at the ends of the rails and carried on 
to the more remote frontier by the stage 
lines. But in a short time the functions 
of the stages were completely usurped by 
the railroads. 

The St. Paul & Pacific reached the Red 
River valley in 1870 — ; the Chicago line via 
Winona was opened in 1872; the Minne- 
sota Central, giving access to the East, 



had been opened a few years before; the 
Sioux City line was completed in 1872 and 
the St. Paul & Duluth in 1870. Since this 
first decade of railroad building in Minne- 
sota the work of construction has been 
either filling in of details or the picture 
first roughly sketched or the carrying out 
of projects which had in only a small de- 
gree to do with the geographical limits of 
the state. The skeleton of the railroad 
map of the state was completed when the 
first line down the Mississippi toward Chi- 
cago, the southerly line through Owa- 
tonna, the line up the Minnesota valley, 
the line to the Red River at Fargo and the 
line to Duluth were marked out. These 
pioneer lines were determined before the 
panic of 1873. Then came a period of stag- 
nation followed by another time of great 
activity which has only been interrupted 
by the depression of 1893. In 1870 there 
were 1,012 miles of railroad in the state: 
in 1880, 3,099: in 1890, 5,409; and in 1899, 
about 6,500 miles. The significant events 
in the railroad history have been the con- 
solidation and absorption of the earlier 
lines by great corporations and the reach- 
ing out of the transcontinental lines from 
small beginnings as local roads. Of the 
latter class the Great Northern, originally 
a ten-mile track from St. Paul to Minne- 
apolis and with a very uncertain future, 
has been the most conspicuous example. 
One of the most daring and at the same 
time successful schemes in railroal build- 
ing ever carried out in the West was the 
building of the Minneapolis. St. Paul & 
Sault Ste. Marie railroad from Minneapolis 
to connect' with the Canadian Pacific at 
Sault Ste. Marie. This line gave to Min- 
nesota an Eastern outlet entirely independ- 
ent of Chicago domination, and from the 
standpoint of commercial strategy, was the 
most important line of railroad ever pro- 
jected in the state. 

Reference to the transportation interests 
of the state is not complete without men- 
tion of the lake traffic from Duluth. 
Though entirely without the borders of the 
state, it plays a very large part in the com- 
mercial affairs of Minnesota. The lake 
route makes possible the cheap importa- 
tion of goods from the Eastern cities and 
places the distributing centers of Minne- 
sota on a par with Chicago in rates, while 
being 400 miles nearer the consumer of the 
Northwest. The lakes have given a means 
of shipping the flour, wheat, lumber and 
iron of Minnesota at such rates as have 
placed these great products of the state in 
the lead in the world's markets. It is now 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



61 



1849 




1899 



50 



YEARS 
AGO 



Railroad Trains 

were like the queer 
looking affair shown 
above. 




AND 
NOW 




THE 



Modern Science 

Has given us railway 
luxuries the like of 
which was not then 
thought possible. 



North-Westcrn Line 

Had its inception fifty-two years ago, and was first to tap the great 
Northwest, with whose wonderful development it has kept steady 
pace. Beginning with only a few miles of road it now has 8,250 
miles in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, 
South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming. 



THE 

North-Western 
Limited 

Twin Cities to Chicago 

Finest Train in the World. 




THE 



[flRTJ.'.tiaBi 



Twilight Limited 

Ti) THK 

Head of the Lakes 

The Business Men's Train. 



JAMES T. CLARK, 

Second Vice PRtST. 4, Gen. Traffic Manager, 

ST. PAUL, MINN. 



T. W. TEASDALE, 

GENERAL PASSENGER AGENT, 

ST. PAUL, MINN. 



62 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 



said that Duluth has a larger tonnage of 
water trattic than New. York. 



Although the existence of iron ore in 
Minnesota was known as early as 1850, no 
practical development of the ore bodies 
took place for thirty years, and it was not 
until 1884 that actual production com- 
menced. This was on the ^'ennillion 
range, which for nearly ten years furnished 
al! the ore shipped from the state. In the 
same year, 1884, the Duluth & Iron Range 
railroad was completed from Agate Bay to 
Vermillion lake and 62,124 tons of ore 
were shipped. The production on the Ver- 
million range constantly increased until 
1892, w'hen it had reached 1,167.650 tons. 
In this year a new factor in the iron in- 
dustry made its appearance. Two years 
before the first important discovery of ore 
on the Mesaba range had been made. It 
was seen at once that these ores, easily 
mined and suited for bessemer steel pro- 
duction, were to take a conspicuous place 
in the iron producing world. New rail- 
roads were planned and shipments over 
them began in 1892, when 4.245 tons went 
out. Tlie shipments grew to 1,788.447 tons 
in 1894. and in 1898 reached 4.613.766 tons. 
The total production of JNIinnesota iron 
mines in 1898 was 5,878,908 tons, and the 
aggregate production smce iron mining 
commenced has reached about 35.000.000 
tons. No development of iron mining op- 
erations recorded has ever equalled this. 
The remarkable character of the iron de- 
posits on the Mesaba range — their near- 
ness to the surface and the possibility of 
working them without blasting in some 
cases — has made their product the cheap- 
est ore of its class in the market. As a 
consequence Mesaba ores are likely to be 
mined to the fidl capacity of the mines as 
long as the deposits exist — unless some 
more startling addition 'to the discovered 
ore deposits of the country should be 
made before that time. The development 
of the Minnesota iron mining industry has 
had a notable effect on the northern part 
of the state, bringing forward within ten 
years, to large importance, a section which 
had been thought to have little future be- 
yond the extent of logging operations. 



In the days before statehood the bank- 
ing business of Minnesota was on a very 
uncertain basis. In the absence of a bank- 



ing law a number of private banks were 
established at St. Paul, St. Anthony, Min- 
neapolis and a few other places in the state 
during the early fifties. None of them 
had a fixed capital. They received deposits 
and issued exchange, and after a time tried 
a form of circulating currency, but, com- 
pared with the complete national and state 
supervision under law at the present time, 
the banking business of the territorial 
period was practically without responsi- 
bility and was extremely crude in all its 
operations. The first bank in St. Paul of 
which there is record was that established 
by Mackubin & Edgerton in 1854. Out 
of it grew the Second National. The Na- 
tional German-American traced its origin 
back to the firm of Meyer & Willius, 
founded in 1856, anl the First National 
from J. E. & Horace Thompson, a firm 
established in 1859. S. W. Farnham and 
Samuel Tracy opened the first bank in St. 
.\nthony in 1854. This institution went 
under in the panic of '57, but it paid in 
full. Other banks of that period were 
those of Orrin Curtis, B. D. Dorman. 
Graves. Towne & Co. and Richard Martin, 
all in St. .\nthony, and Beede & jNIenden- 
hall. C. H. Pettit and Snyder & McFar- 
lane in Minneapolis. Rufus J. Baldwin, 
D. C. Groh and Sidle, Wolford & Co. com- 
menced business in 185". .Messrs. Men- 
ck-nhall and Baldwin, m 1S62, purchased 
the State Bank of Minnesota at Austin, 
and. removing it to Minneapolis, laid the 
foundations of the present Security Bank. 
Mr. Sidle converted his business into the 
"Minneapolis Bank,"' which afterwards be- 
came the First National Bank of Minne- 
apolis. 

.\t first there was no currency available, 
and an attempt was made to supply its 
place by introducing the issues of Indiana 
banks, but these notes became discredited 
and known as "Indiana wild cat." An- 
other attempt was made by the issue of 
notes secured on the state railroad bond 
issues of 1858, but the failure of the rail- 
road schemes and the repudiation of the 
bonds ruined the banks which tried this 
solution of the problein. City and county 
authorities at one time issued a scrip 
which served a purpose for a while. With 
the passing of the national bank law 
things took on a better aspect. The First 
National Bank of St. Paul was established 
in 1863 and the First National in Minne- 
apolis in 1865. State laws were enacted 
under which there are now operating over 
150 banks, about a dozen savings banks 
and eight trust companies. In 1878 a law 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA 



establishing the office of public examiner 
was passed. The banks, both city and 
cnuntry. were never in better condition 
than in 1899. Various financial storms' 
have been weathered and the banl<ing sys- 
tem put on a sound and eminently satis- 
factory basis. 



The commercial interests of Minnesota 
include many undertakings which may not 
be 'classified under the general divisions 
which have been enumerated. The im- 
mense retail establishments of the cities 
have grown up from the general trading 
stocks of the pioneer days — the natural 
evolution of the country store into the 
modern department store. Such impor- 



tant adjuncts of the commercial system as 
the newspapers, hotels, 'telegraph and tele- 
phone companies, electric and gas lighting 
industries, the raising of flowers, seed and 
nursery farming, insurance writing, pub- 
lishing, real estate dealing — these and oth- 
ers of like character belong to none of 
the larger divisions of the commercial 
body, but have played an important part 
in the commercial progress of the state 
and have developed in a manner connnen- 
surate with the general prosperity. The 
half century closes with few important 
lines of activity unrepresented in the com- 
mercial life of the state and with a condi- 
tion of uniform prosperity which speaks 
eloquently of the solid foundations upon 
which the business structure of Minnesota 
is erected. 




61 



A HALF CENTURY OF MINNESOTA. 




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ONE or OUR WEST BOUND TRAIN LOADS SHIPPED IN THE EARLY SUMMER OF 1599 TO THE RED RIVER VALLEY, 
THE LARGEST SINGLE SHIPMENT OF THRESHING MACHINERY IN THE HISTORY OF THE STATE. 

We arc distinctly a Minnesota institution and we want to furnish 
Minnesota farmers the best Threshing Machinery that ingenuity can devise. 

We have done so for years. 

We will continue to do so. 

We execute orders promptly. 

We are near at hand. 

We invite you to visit us. 

We employ seven hundred men in our factory. 

We manufacture everything in the line of Threshing Machinery, 
including Engines, Separators, Horse Powers, Self Feeders, Weighers, Wagon 
Loaders, Wind Stackers, Tanks, etc., etc. 

We are building five hundred (500) Engines, one thousand (1,000) 
Separators, one thousand (1,000) Self Feeders, etc etc., for the season of J 900. 

We also manufacture Simple and Compound Stationary Engines and 
Boilers suitable for creameries, flouring mills, saw mills, electric light plants, 
water works, etc. THEY ARE THE VERY BEST. 

THEY ARE BUILT IN MINNESOTA BY MINNESOTA WORKMEN 
FOR MINNESOTA FARMERS. 

We will mail our new catalogue for 1900 free on application. 

The Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company, 

West Minneapolis, Hopkins P. 0., Minnesota. 



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